Un Faune avec son fifre sous les oliviers sauvages

Hervé Bizeul's Cabernet Franc cuvée, bottled as IGP Côtes Catalanes because Cabernet Franc is not authorised under the regional AOC. The back label is Bizeul's first-person account of wanting to vinify Cab Franc in the Roussillon and finally finding the right plot for it. Fruit comes from a north-facing slope at the western foot of a limestone cliff in the northern Vingrau valley - Urgonian limestone over clay-limestone, the vines planted at 6,800 stocks per hectare in gobelet (bush) on individual échalas stakes, each stock positioned so it shades its neighbour from direct sun.

Co-fermentation (grains mêlés) with temperature control, gentle punch-downs and pump-overs. Partly new oak, then second-fill barrels, finishing in tank until an early bottling the May or June after harvest. 14.5% ABV. The label illustration of a faun with a fife changes every year; the producer says the Faun "grows up with the wine."