2022 Chateau Thivin Vin de France Rouge Utopia 750Ml Bottle

If you walked through this little terraced plot pictured below in spring, you would be crunching on a carpet of herbs, grasses, wild strawberries and flowers. The PIWI* (thick skinned hybrid, disease resistant) varieties planted here many years ago as an experiment, have “blossomed” and the wine is excellent. The vines have never been sprayed with copper, sulphur or any chemical; only herbal “tea” mixtures. The varieties used are prior (a german pinot cross), sauvignon gris, chambourcin and a white johanniter. These are hand-picked (of course), and fermented with a high percentage of whole bunches, in small open fermenters before being pressed by hand in a tiny basket press. This wine ends up darker than the Cote de Brouillys and it exhibits some plummy, dark berry and subtle spicy fruitcake notes a little like a chianti, but it also shows some deep, dark Beaujolais character, even with no gamay at all!