Les Vignes Z (Thomas Zurbach), "Lanterne Rouge" 2019

From Bon Raisin: "The name Lanterne Rouge is a reference to one of Thomas’ passions, cycling, and more precisely to its most famous race, the Tour de France, where the last placed rider carried a red lantern.

100% Grolleau from the tiny parcel called Les Gruaux from near Faye d’Anjou. The parcel, which Thomas acquired from Toby Bainbridge, was planted with vines in the 1980s and it sits on a plateau of clay soils overlooking the River Layon. Once in the cellar, a third of the grapes were lightly crushed and placed into epoxy tanks then the remaining grapes were put whole bunch on top. That was left for 12 days for what Thomas refers to as a variation on semi-carbonic maceration. After pressing, the juice went back in to the same tanks to continue fermentation and from then, there was little intervention until bottling in April 2020. Unfined, unfiltered with no SO2."