2020 was a year marked by an extremely wet spring with intermittent rain throughout the early summer creating uncharacteristic problems with damp humid conditions. Nevertheless, by the time summer finally arrived, with a lot of moisture in the soil, the vines grew like crazy, and produced a good-sized crop of extremely tasty grapes.

The nose is more complex that our main wine and is more perfumed, spicy and delicate. The use of whole bunches results in a peppery freshness and immediacy, with pristine layers of raspberry and wild strawberry, with wafts of orange peel and fennel. There's also hints of slatey minerals and even a note of iodine.

Initially soft, and quite shy the palate slowly unveils an array of delicate red fruits like wild strawberries and red fruit pastilles. The gentle vanillas, and subtle seasoned oak cushion a delicate 'cool-climate' Grenache palate picking up the wild strawberry theme with echoes of garrigue herbs and fennel. A light-styled wine of just 13%, the finish is still persistant and slatey.

Les Genoux is less intensely coloured than the regular cuveé, as it contains 10-15% white and pink grapes.

Excellent on its own as a 'vino di meditazione' (best appreciated with a good friend), Les Genoux is also a wonderful match for charcuterie (especially finnochiona, or fennel salami), and the perfumed, elegant style makes it pretty versatile.

At pressing, the wine was drained into one 500L Seguin Moreau 'Icone' barrel, and the pressings blended with other Grenache pressings in another 225L barrel. After 15 months of ageing, the two barrels were blended together to create the 2020 Les Genoux cuvée.

Harvest was marked by 2 days of heavy rain in mid-September and then after a
couple of days break, a week of wet weather that had us rushing to finish picking in
between the showers.