"By now, you're used to us promoting bottles that have "Flor'd" us at recent tastings, however today's 3 pack offer highlights a region we've been excited about. Better yet, we discovered a producer that captures this excitement across 3 different styles of wine.
The Côtes Catalanes IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) borders Spain on the French side of the Pyrenees mountain range. Most of the vineyards are east-facing and open to marine influence. Combined with the winds from the snow-capped mountains and a diversity of soil types, all of the elements exist to produce both ripe flavors and fresh acidity - making this one of the most important IGP's in the entire Languedoc-Roussillon.
The Côtes Catalanes has been one of my go-to IGP's for overachieving wines. If you're unfamiliar, IGP's differ from AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) wines in that they have looser rules pertaining to which varieties and winemaking techniques can be used for a particular region's wines. Too often, these IGP's and table wines are inaccurately viewed as being of lesser quality than AOC wines, but in fact, these are the designations where you might find the most exciting wines as they are not bound by strict wine producing laws.
Given the adventorous nature of the producers in these regions, there are plenty of misses to go with the hits and our job is to filter these out before they make it to our shelves. We recently sampled the entire lineup of Les Enfants Sauvages and narrowed down their spectacular new releases to this 3-Pack offer.
2022 Les Enfants Sauvages 'Cool Moon' Côtes Catalanes Blanc Impressions: This blend of Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc and Macabeu is sourced from 80-90 year old vines that sit over clay and limestone soils. Opens with aromas of ripe red apples, bosc pear, honeydew melon, gardenias and oyster shells. The palate displays an energetic acidity that easily sways a concentrated, mineral-dense concentration towards a dry, savory, and fruity finish.
2022 Les Enfants Sauvages 'Bouche du Soleil' Côtes Catalanes (Orange) Impressions: We like to divide the palate experience of skin contact/orange wines into 2 camps: those that drink more like rosés and those that drink dry like a red wine. This 100% Muscat spends over 1 week on the skins and leans towards the former. Highly aromatic, it opens with highly expressive notes of ripe apricots, tangerines, almond blossoms and dried herbs de provence. A racy, lean and juicy palate elegantly sways towards a lengthy dry, salty and floral finish.
2018 Les Enfants Sauvages 'Roi des Lézards' Côtes Catalanes Rouge Impressions: The impetus for putting this pack together, 'Roi des Lézards' is sourced from 90-year-old Carignan vines over limestone and clay soils. Aromas of fresh cherry, red plum, boysenberry, anise, and bacon fat sit over secondary notes of leather, shoe polish, and sandalwood. The palate is concentrated with brilliant acidity that dances with supple tannins before evolving into a lengthy finish with subtle floral tones and baking spices.
About the Producer: Les Enfants Sauvages came about rather by accident after Carolin and Nikolaus' search for a place in the sun resulted in them falling in love with this property with 8 hectares of vines near Fitou, a coastal town in the south of the Languedoc-Roussillon. This was a far cry from their life in Germany where Nikolaus worked in his family's leather business. Carolin moved away from her work as an architect and took a course in Oenology, and so, Les Enfants Sauvages was born with their first vintage bottled in 2002.
Why "Enfants Sauvages"? Simply put, as a tribute to Jim Morrison and The Doors. The duo behind the wines drew inspiration from The Doors’ song “Wild Child”—about finding salvation in the wild state of nature—and they took the French translation for their name. Today the estate has grown to12 hectares. The grapes are grown without the use of synthetic chemicals, with remedies instead limited to plants like camomile and nettle. Each vine gets individual attention, with leaves, shoots and even sometimes grapes removed, all by hand, to maintain their health. In fact, the only modern equipment used in the process is at the winemaking stage itself, but only as a means of encouraging natural processes to occur.