Le Roc des Anges 2021 - 75cl

Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet farm around fifty parcels of old vines above Montner, in the upper Agly Valley where the Roussillon backs into the Pyrenean foothills. The soils here are shallow black schist with almost no clay, and that shows in the glass: their whites carry a stony, saline tension that reads closer to Burgundy than to the fat, sun-baked style most people expect from the deep south. Everything is farmed organically and worked biodynamically, hand-harvested into small boxes, and fermented on wild yeasts.

This is a dry white from their Côtes Catalanes range, built on Grenache Gris with Maccabeu, some of the Grenache Gris planted back in 1919. It ferments in old wood and rests on its lees for several months in used barrels, which is where the creamy weight in the middle comes from. Nothing here is polished up or fined into submission.

Expect brilliant straw-gold colour and a nose of salted citrus, white tea, a little jasmine and crushed fennel, with a cool iodine edge that smells faintly of wet stone. The palate is fine-textured and creamy from the lees, then bright citrus and green cassis take over and the schist pulls everything long and taut. It finishes savoury and mineral rather than fruity, with real drive. Drinking well now through around 2028; a year or two more will only add breadth.

How to Serve

Chill to 9-11°C, no colder, and pour into a proper white wine glass rather than something narrow. It opens up as it warms in the hand, so don't drown it in an ice bucket. A splash decanted or simply left ten minutes lets the fennel and stone notes surface.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot in Lamb's Conduit Street, where a saline schist white belongs on the by-the-glass list. Brat in Shoreditch, alongside the wood-fired turbot. Planque in Haggerston, for its low-intervention leanings.

Food Pairings

I'd pour it with grilled sea bass and fennel, or a plate of raw scallops with lemon. It also handles roast chicken with tarragon better than most whites this taut, and it's very good with a wedge of aged Comté.