La Bascule, Gloriette 2021

Producer: Domaine Leonine & Fifi Selections
Region: Rousillon, France
Varietals: Syrah
Viticulture: Organic
Category: Red Wine
Size: 750ml bottle 

La Bascule is a collaboration between Fifi and Domaine Leonine in the Rousillon. Before Fifi returned to France to make wine, he opened the Ten Bells, imported wine, and even had a natural wine shop somewhere (...it's now called Vanderbilt Ave Wine Merchants). He said his friends at Leonine "moved out of the Côtes du Roussillon AOC quite some years ago as their wines were rejected often and they didn't agree with the politics of the AOC at the time." So the reason the Bascule wines are classified as Vin de France? "Yes, the reason is really the "f@#% the AOC," he says.

100% Syrah, farmed organically, whole cluster fermentation in fiberglass, a short maceration, and zero sulfur added. This makes for a very fresh Syrah with less olive brine and more strawberry notes. Easy to chug, easy to love. A ‘10-minute bottle,’ as Fifi would say. Jonathan Kemp