We're pleased to have wines available again from Alex Durand at Pèira Levada in Faugères.
Both from the 2020 vintage, Otium and Lust for Wine have settled beautifully in the last year, and are both singing right now. And from 2021, the first time we've received this cuvee- we have Dynamite.
Farming 4.5 hectares split across 8 small parcels, Alex is keen not to disrupt the balance of life among them. He practices no-till organic agriculture with biodynamic principles, cover crops grow wild, protecting his soils and promoting a rich life underground.
To walk the vineyards with him, he's becoming well versed in the mycorrhizal networks that have established themselves since he took over his parcels in 2018. He's been planting trees recently, both for the shade that the vines need as Faugères continue to warm, but also to improve the diversity of that fungal world beneath the surface.
Refusing to till also means water remains in the vineyards rather than evaporating, and his wines all have the nimble feet of well-hydrated fruit, wonderfully fine-framed despite their 14.5%.
Whilst half of his parcels are on the iconic Schist of the appellation, the other half gives the domaine the name. In Laurens, on the edge of Faugères, these clay heavy soils are pocked with the raised spines of a marble bedrock breaking through the surface: pèira levada or 'raised stones' in Occtitan dialect.
For each wine, Alex practices long, gentle macerations. Fruit is de-stemmed and added to tall, slim fibreglass tanks for a 90 day static-cap maceration: zero extraction. The parcellaire cuvees are all 100% free run juice, and the press juice from each (a press he undertakes very gently!) is collected for Otium.
The parcels on marble and clay give wines with a lively, driving attack- brighter acids and wilder at heart than those on schist, which share a rounder profile: elegant, saline and long. All Alex's wines have a beautiful balance between structure, complexity and freshness.
NOW AVAILABLE
2021 - Dynamite - Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache
Hand-picked from two small parcels over marble and clay, one .30ha of 50 year old Cinsault & Grenache, and another .40ha of 60 year old Cinsault & Carignan. De-stemmed, macerated for 90 days, free-run juice aged for 10 months, bottled with no additions.
2020 - Lust for Wine - Syrah, Grenache
Hand picked from two 15 year old parcels totalling a hectare together, planted with one-third Syrah two-thirds Grenache. Made to the same method as Dynamite, bottled with no additions.
2020 - Otium - Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Syrah
Alex's assemblage of the press-juices of each maceration for the parcellaire wines. He presses very gently, tasting diligently as he goes. As soon as he feels tannin, the press stops. Otium is a wonderfully detailed, lively expression of his four hectares over both schist and marble, a brilliant exercise in wasting nothing. Aged in tank for 10 months, bottled with no additions.
