Domaine de la Métairie d'Alon - Le Village Pinot Noir 2017

A lovely, intense nose with notes of vanilla, smoke, sweet flowers, ripe fruit, and green coffee; the palate is very smooth, charming, and aromatic, with a delightful liveliness on the finish. Pleasant and very well-crafted.

Laurent Delaunay has set up his winemaking facilities in Marseillette, a small wine-growing village not far from Carcassonne, and oenologist Vincent Charleux oversees them. These two enthusiasts of the Languedoc terroirs pool their talents to carefully select the vineyards, winemaking methods, blends, and aging processes. Laurent Delaunay, along with his wife Catherine—an oenologist like himself—had already founded Les-Jamelles in 1991, a range of remarkable single-varietal wines. In late 2015, they purchased the La Métairie d’Alon estate in Limoux with the goal of producing exceptional Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays on the beautiful high-altitude terroir of Magrie. The estate comprises 25 hectares cultivated using organic and biodynamic methods, divided into 25 plots that allow for plot-specific selections and meticulously crafted cuvées. By the third vintage, their success was already evident. The “Solaire” Pinot Noir, produced on a north-facing clay plot, is breathtaking. This estate richly deserves a second star!