Cuvee Courtiol is a selection of the best grapes of the harvest in each vintage. Usually the blend will feature Carignan (vines are up to 80-years-old), supplemented with a small amount of Grenache. The vines are rooted in the shallow slate (schist) soils. Grapes are harvested by hand (yields are very low) and placed in small boxes, destemmed into cement vats where they undergo a thirty-day maceration and a lengthy fermentation. The wine is aged for 18-24 months in concrete vats, and then for four months in fibreglass-lined tanks before being bottled without filtration, fining or the addition of sulphur.
Drinking this Faugères will make you feel close, or even closer, to nature. This is a crawl on the wild side; the fruit is meaty with game-and-gravy flavours and lots of garrigue notes of bay and roasted thyme and there is pronounced bonfire smokiness on the finish.