Chat Fou, Eric Texier 2022

A man of conviction but by no means a zealot, Eric Texier likes to push the boundaries. Despite having no experience or contacts in wine, Eric decided to give up his career as a nuclear engineer and study winemaking in 1992, interning with Jean-Marie Guffens at Verget in Mâcon. Lacking the network to buy his own vineyard, Eric did his time with established winemakers then made négoce wines with the fruit of like-minded purists. Although he considers his approach to viticulture to be that of an old-fashioned paysan, don’t be fooled. Eric is more of a pioneer than he would have you believe. His fresh take on an old terroir has been instrumental in reviving appellations of the Northern Rhône that would otherwise have been lost. The estate consists of two very distinct terroirs - Brézème in the Drôme (left bank of the Rhône) and the Ouvèze valley in the Ardèche (right bank). Brézème is a limestone hillside facing south, the last ridge of the Vercors Massif at the mouth of the Drôme river, whilst the Ouvèze valley, on the Ardèche side, marks the geological separation between the Massif Central and the Cévennes, where the vineyards facing south, are granitic with a mixture of schist and gneiss on its surface and islands of limestone.

Declassified to Vin de France, as opposed to the more usual Côtes-du-Rhône due to its production method, a blend of 55% Grenache, 30% Cinsault and 15% Clairette (a white grape).

All fruit is organic, harvested by hand, partly de-stemmed and co-fermented with native yeasts in open-top concrete tanks. As with all Texier wines, no extraction techniques are employed, aged in concrete for 12-18 months, unfined, unfiltered and bottled with only the smallest amount of sulphur. The blend of red and white grapes producing a joyfully bright wine, with crunchy red fruit, beautiful texture from the concrete fermentation, and incredible purity and drinking pleasure.