Everything Gourmet

A Gourmet Gazette Fine Wine Find: La Madrague

The Madrague vineyard overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France. Photo courtesy Madrague. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

It emerges from the lush setting of the French Riviera. A sumptuous white Côtes de Provence. A rare wine for only 1,800 bottles of this entirely organic wine were brought into existence. The Charles 2018 vintage from the vineyard of La Madrague is an elegant wine, a refreshing wine and sends the signal that Provence is a great white wine producing region. The 2018 vintage Charles is made exclusively from the Rolle or Vermentino grape variety and enjoyed a daily bâtonnage once a day for a month and then once a week for two months, bâtonnage being the art of stirring the lees or sediment back into the wine imparting upon it additional flavor and aroma.

The Charles 2018 white Côtes de Provence from the Madrague domain. Photo courtesy Madrague. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

The wine was aged in a concrete egg, a fairly new vessels that is made from Loire sand, gravel and spring water with no chemical additives. The shape gives the wine a continuous flow during the aging process. The wine is a perfect match for sea bass on a bed of fennel, a local specialty.
The Madrague domain is located on the Saint-Tropez peninsula on Croix-Valmer and looks out onto the beautiful beach of Gigaro. The vineyard stretches out over the towns of Croix-Valmer, Grimaud, Ramatuelle and Gassin. It was purchased in 2007 by Jean-Marie Zodo whose intention was to transform it into an organic wine producer. He also introduced the concrete eggs. The vineyard received its organic certification in 2010.
©The Gourmet Gazette
http://www.lesvinsdelamadrague.com/

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