VACQUEYRAS IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS 2021 (Domaine Fontavin)

TERROIR

IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS is a red Vacqueyras made from a blend of three grape varieties, including Grenache vines that are more than a century old. The vines are planted in two villages: Vacqueyras, where the vines are between 40 and 120 years old (old grenaches), and Sarrians where the vines are between 15 and 40 years old. These two villages offer distinct soil types:

• In Sarrians, the vines rest on the Riss Terrace (last glacial period dating back 2000 years ago): the soil corresponds to a vast stony plateau overlooking the Ouvèze River by 20 to 40 meters, and presents on the surface pebbles of decarbonated sandstone, flint and limestone fragments, all wrapped in a matrix of red sandy clay. It produces powerful and robust red wines for aging.
  
  
• In Vacqueyras, the terroir is composed of Miocene formations from the Helvetian period (-16 to -11 Ma). Very sensitive to erosion, they are essentially composed of red sands and soft sandstones which disintegrate to give sandy, sometimes stony soils. The wines produced here are finer than those of the plateau, but less structured and of average age.

WINEGROWING & WINEMAKING

The vines are cultivated according to the principles of the Organic Agriculture: one row out of two is grassed, and the soil is enriched by adding sheep compost.

The grapes are harvested manually and destemmed. Then they are placed in vats for the alcoholic fermentation under the action of indigenous yeasts. The skin maceration lasts between 18 and 20 days, where pumping over and punching down are carried out to break the marc capthat forms at the vat's top and reintegrate the skins into the fermenting juice.

Once the maceration is over, the must is racked into concrete vats to finish its fermentations and to mature for 6 months.

The bottle is sealed with a DIAM5® cork stopper which guarantees the absence of any TCA contamination or cork taste.