Vin de France "Orion sigma"

This is a Cabernet Franc wine from two small plots in Faye d'Anjou. The two plots, quite different, contribute equally to the blend: the first is a relatively young plot, 15 years old, on quartz-rich clay (over schist at depth), which will provide the Cabernet's expression, its power, and the wine's backbone. The second plot is a very old vine, at least 70 years old, called Les Mailles Hubert, located in the Clos des Mailles (a little further down the slope compared to the Chenins of the same hillside and benefiting from a layer of clay above the schists) which gives the wine its ethereal, floral, and fresh qualities, with great finesse. The thickness of the clay above the schists in both cases is important for good ripening of Cabernet Franc, a grape variety that requires good buffering of its water supply during the summer, unlike Chenin, which expresses itself better in the harshness of surface schists.
Orion is one of the most easily remarkable large constellations. In the Kingdom of Akkad (around 2000 BC), it was called Uru-anna, "the light of the heavens." It is notably composed of 3 major stars, including Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), the red giant that usually gives its name to the cuvée. For this departure in 2024, I chose another star to accompany this wine, Sigma Orionis, because it is a multiple star that we see as a single entity, just like this particular, intra-berry, multiple, and individual fermentation that then unites to give us a complete whole.

Manual harvest, 10-day whole cluster maceration, with no extraction movements. Pressing and barreling into barrels of various ages. Alc 12% - residual sugar 0 g/L