Sant'Agnese. Viognier 'Les Bizarres'

Grape: Viognier

Ripe apricot, bitter orange and jasmine, even a touch of Vermouth on the nose. Rich, spiced fruit, candied lemon and bitter orange, a deep, almost honeyed, texture. 14.5%

Sant'Agnese Producer page

Paolo was quite surprised by the success of his ‘L’Étrange’, a skin contact Vermentino with an unconventional purity. A realisation dawned that his future may be in white wine and in 2018 and 2020 he planted a hectare of Viognier, Guyot trained, 5500 vines. This is his first ‘Les Bizarres’ and made in 2021!  It followed the technique developed for ‘L’Étrange’: hand-picked, vineyard selected bunches, gently pressed and the must cold macerated for 5 days before a spontaneous fermentation in an open plastic bin. Selected Viognier berries were added to the fermenting must and when the fermentation finished, the wine was transferred to a sealed tank, where it remained for 2 years. The wine was bottled without using sulphites or clarification. Remarkable that the wine was in such excellent condition after a year when everything was difficult, a herculean effort was needed to sort the hand that nature had dealt.