Wine Freedom
Jurancon Caubeigt 2020 - Domaine Castera - Jurancon, France 75cl
Sold out
£30.00
COLOUR: SWEET
COUNTRY: FRANCE
REGION: JURANCON
BOTTLE SIZE: 75CL
THE WINEMAKER: CASTERA
Despite his young age, Franck Lihour has already been making wines around the world (including, it turns out, at our friends at Beaumont winery in South Africa) for over 10 years. On his travels he has picked up many ideas to improve the quality of wine back home. He introduced some these ‘new-fangled’ ideas, gingerly at first, to his father, and now has taken over the key decisions in the vineyards and winery.
Franck treats the vines with natural rather than chemical products, the soils are nourished with green manure and biodiversity is encouraged by the planting of various plants, harvesting is done by hand and in stages, with forensic attention to the quality and ripeness…
The Lihour vineyards are made of three plots: Tauzy (2ha, named after the local oak), Caubeigt (8ha) and Les Terrasses (1.3h). Tauzy is based on clay limestone soils with pudding stones, les galets, like you find in Chateauneuf; this is a cooler vineyard to which the rare indigenous variety Petit Courbu - revived by Franck and his father and now cultivated by several growers in the region. In addition to his outstanding dry whites, he also makes a lovely sweet wine. NB: he worked at the great Sauternes producer Chateau Suduiraut.
Since Franck took over the domain, terroir expression has taken on prime importance. Everything else is secondary. Franck has taken decisions such as to not protect the juice against oxygen, and stopping low temperatures for fermenting as he is not interested in extracting loads of aromas but have a more complex, mineral wine.
Under his watch, already good vineyard standards have improved yet more, pressing has become more important (slower), while only indigenous yeasts are used for fermentation. The wines are quintessential Jurancon. Franck is a young winemaker that is, quite simply, taking this hugely under-appreciated appellation to the next level.
Franck treats the vines with natural rather than chemical products, the soils are nourished with green manure and biodiversity is encouraged by the planting of various plants, harvesting is done by hand and in stages, with forensic attention to the quality and ripeness…
The Lihour vineyards are made of three plots: Tauzy (2ha, named after the local oak), Caubeigt (8ha) and Les Terrasses (1.3h). Tauzy is based on clay limestone soils with pudding stones, les galets, like you find in Chateauneuf; this is a cooler vineyard to which the rare indigenous variety Petit Courbu - revived by Franck and his father and now cultivated by several growers in the region. In addition to his outstanding dry whites, he also makes a lovely sweet wine. NB: he worked at the great Sauternes producer Chateau Suduiraut.
Since Franck took over the domain, terroir expression has taken on prime importance. Everything else is secondary. Franck has taken decisions such as to not protect the juice against oxygen, and stopping low temperatures for fermenting as he is not interested in extracting loads of aromas but have a more complex, mineral wine.
Under his watch, already good vineyard standards have improved yet more, pressing has become more important (slower), while only indigenous yeasts are used for fermentation. The wines are quintessential Jurancon. Franck is a young winemaker that is, quite simply, taking this hugely under-appreciated appellation to the next level.
SHIPPING & RETURNS
Birmingham deliveries
We offer FREE delivery for orders £85+ within a 10 km radius of our Birmingham city centre. For orders under we charge £5.00 delivery within our 10 km radius.
National deliveries outside Birmingham
We offer FREE UK delivery for all orders £100+. Orders placed before 10am on Monday will be delivered by Friday to addresses in mainland UK, providing the wines are in stock, with some postcode exceptions. Please note that orders placed online on Saturday or Sunday will be processed on Monday, for delivery by Friday the same week.
We have no minimum order, although there is a minimum delivery charge of £9.00 for orders under £100 in order to cover our logistical costs.
We try to ensure delivery is made within 5 working days.
For orders under £100 we have worked hard to find the best price we can, bearing in mind that wine is both heavy and fragile. We use ParcelForce couriers who specialise in due care and diligence with fragile and liquids.
European and Worldwide Delivery
Please contact us direct for a quote. Given the complexity of shipping wine internationally we will provide a bespoke price based on requirements.
Bank Holidays
Our couriers do not operate over bank holidays, therefore additional time will be taken into account if an 'order to delivery window' is processed over a bank holiday.
Returns
We offer free replacement on all stock if proven to be damaged in transit.
If our products are proven to be out of condition on arrival we offer replacement stock to the same value.
If our products are proven to be out of condition on arrival we offer replacement stock to the same value.
NEED HELP
Any help please contact us here