Domaine Plageoles Gaillac Doux Le Loin de L’Oeil 2022 500ml (6 Bottles) Gaillac, France

by Fine Wine Cellars

$308.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

Sweet. Organic. Quietly (yet rather brilliantly), Domaine Plageoles has for decades been dedicating itself to resuscitating—and then making outstanding wines from—the ancient yet unheralded grapes of the local terroir. Loin de l’Oeil is one of the many varieties first brought back from near-extinction by this Gaillac artisan. The name translates as ‘far from the eye’, the eye being the bud and the distance alluding to the long-stemmed bunches of this vine, which are far from these ‘eyes’.

When their Loin de l’Oeil reaches phenolic maturity in the Plageoles vineyards, the team pinches the stem at the top of each bunch. This method arrests the ripening and concentrates sweetness and acidity. Following harvest, the fruit is whole-bunch pressed, and the wine is naturally fermented in old oak barrels fabricated from the nearby Grésigne forest.

The 2022 gifts a classic varietal fruit spectrum of apricot and blossom alongside engaging scents of confit lemon, molasses, and dried fruits. The palate is well balanced, sweet/savoury and tangy, driven by a refreshing, spicy finish. Residual sugar clocks in at around 120 g/L, and the volatiles and extract keep the wine perfectly pitched, fresh and clean. With the same stone fruit/lemon drizzle spectrum, and a gentle twist of balsamic volatility, this will happily replace a Sauternes or Barsac at the table—without the hefty price tag.

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About Domaine Plageoles

The wines of Gaillac as a whole are on the map today as wines of quality due to the hard work and adventurous spirit of the Plageoles family. It all started with Robert Plageoles, who took great pride in bringing back the lost indigenous varieties of the area. He researched and replanted over a dozen varieties (7 in the Mauzac family alone) indigenous to Gaillac that had all but vanished.

Robert did painstaking work, often going in to the forest to find wild vines growing, and going to seed banks to resurrect these grapes. Robert’s son Bernard continued this work, and now his sons Florent and Romain have taken up the cause of natural wines in Gaillac.

The terroir in Gaillac is made up of clay, limestone, sand and silex soils. Gaillac receives more sunshine than Bordeaux and is graced by a cool maritime climate. Between the historic family vineyard of Très Cantous and the Roucou-Cantemerle vineyard totaling 20-hectares, they farm Mauzac Vert, Mauzac Noir, Ondenc, Duras, Muscadelle, and Prunelart. To drink the wines from Plageoles is to experience the fruit and terroir of living history.

Fine Wine Cellars

On the one hand, our role as a merchant of all things wine & spirits could not be simpler. We aim to source the most delicious, the most authentic, and the highest quality products possible from Australia and around the world in order to offer them to our clients. We live or die by how well we perform this task. Of course things are rarely as simple or as easy as they seem. Hunting for wines & spirits is no different. Apart from the months spent travelling, countless days and evenings spent tasting and the outrageous wine expenditure in the name of ‘research’, sourcing quality wine and spirits requires expertise and experience. Understanding the potential of a producer and their products is much more than just a slurp and a spit.

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