2020 Léon Barral Faugères Jadis

WINEMAKER: Didier Barral
REGION: Languedoc, FR
VARIETY: Carignan, Syrah, Grenache
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

"“Jadis” is Carignan (50%), Syrah (40%) and the remainder Grenache. The colour is a resonant deep blackish-purple and the nose explodes with ripe plum, garrigue and black-cherry scents; the Carignan provides colour and concentration and the Syrah gives fragrant garrigue notes of laurel, bay and thyme as well as a supple mouthfeel to this complex and incredibly exciting wine. This is a simply great wine, and one that will become very hard to track down in years to come “Jadis” is widely regarded one of the great wines from the Languedoc and can cellar to advantage for many many years." - Andrew Guard

Barral is the ultimate biodynamic farmer. He allows his cows and sheep to graze amongst his old bush-vines during the winter months as this provides them with the most natural form of fertiliser! In the winery, everything is natural, from the wild yeasts which ferment his grapes to the absence of sulphur or filtration. The resulting wines are pure, unadulterated expressions of the rugged, scrub-covered hills of this part of Mediterranean France and the perfect cold weather reds.

In his words, "Nowadays, farmers feed the planet but destroy it at the same time. Sometimes they think they are doing the right thing by ploughing too often for example, which eventually damages the soil structure. We have to observe nature and to understand how micro-organisms operate. Then we see that tools and machinery can never replace the natural, gentle work of earthworms, insects and other creatures that travel through a maze of tunnels, creating porosity and aerating the soil, making it permeable and alive. There‘s grass in our vineyards and amongst the grass, there are cows and horses: a whole living world that lives together, each dependent on the other and each being vital to the balance of the biotope".