2024 Eric Forest Saint Véran "Terre Noire" (PRE-ARRIVAL ONLY)

Pre-arrival price only, wine will be $151 when landed.

A wine always of latent power & intensity as the vines here are in excess of 100 years of age. Terre Noire" refers to the black earth soil which sits with dense quantities of limestone just one metre below the surface.

From a gentle slope facing south, it is composed of 40 to 60 cm of brown clay on the surface over a very stony subsoil of white crinoidal limestone. These old vines produce very small grapes with thick skins, which gives so much character and density to the wine.  The cool 2024 vintage perhaps tempers some of the power of the site but it’s still almost sensory overload in the glass.

Slight hints of green pear, peach & other stone fruits.  An explosion of talc like & chalky texture which coats the tongue.  It roars to the end on Eric’s trademark salinity and citrus driven fruits.  Very wide, but more so impossibly long.

Vinification with native yeasts in 300-liter barrels (30% new oak – higher ratio can be sustained from these very old vines). Aging is for 12 months in barrels without racking (no bâtonnage) then blending in stainless steel tanks for 6 lunar cycles on fine lees.