Domaine Ribiera 'A Bicyclette' 2022
The Wine
Mainly young-ish vine Cinsault, i.e. approx. 50-year-old vines, very short maceration then a year in tank. Light, bright, fresh bowl of red forest fruits, dry finish to keep you sipping. Has a 'Lo-Fi' manner - edgy, but in a good way ;> Can be enjoyed over a few days. Honest & super smashable!
The Details
Variety - Cinsault
Country - France
Region - Languedoc
Extra - Cork
Year - 2022
Volume - 750ml
About the Wine Maker
Ribiera’s Regis Pichon works vines on sloping shist hills surrounding the small village of Aspiran in the Languedoc. He works with a range of grapes from Cinsault, Syrah and Grenache to Terette, Roussanne and Clairette.
Before making wine, Regis worked as a sommelier in one of the world’s great cellars at La Tour d’Argent in Paris and at the equally renowned wine shop Hediard, where he met his wife, Catherine.
In 2005, Regis decided to move his family from the city to a tiny village and begin making wine. It wasn’t his background in the classics of Bordeaux or Burgundy that inspired him, but rather a bottle of Pierre Overnoy from Arbois in the Jura that opened his eyes to natural wine beauty. The wine was cleaner than he had thought a wine without sulphur wine could be and so much easier to drink than the extracted, conventional wines that he worked with daily as a sommelier. He knew that making wine rather than pouring it was his true path.
Today Regis ferments with naturally occurring yeasts and only adds small amounts of sulphur at bottling to his roughly 22,000 bottles a year.
His wines provide immense pleasure, have a personality unto themselves - highly drinkable with a tip of the hat to Pierre Overnoy…The value speaks for itself…
