Vin de France Le Grand Blanc Henri Milan 2014

Lot presentation

Vin de France Le Grand Blanc Henri Milan 2014

The wine

This is an unusual but phenomenally delicious blend of Grenache Blanc, Rolle, Roussane, Chardonnay and Muscat Petit Grain, resulting in a wine for drinking either on its own or alongside a cold first course; completely changing character during aeration and tasting. The twenty-year-old vines are cultivated organically and their fruit undergoes direct pressing and fermentation with indigenous yeasts in concrete vats followed by malolactic fermentation. Wine is matured in barrels on its lees before spending a year in the cellar. It is eventually bottled without fining or filtration.

Henri Milan is a bit of a character. He turned his back on the Baux-de-Provence appellation in 2007 in order to fully express his creativity in the vineyard, just a few kilometres from Domaine Trévallon which took the same path. The very incarnation of la vie en rose, pink is the inviting colour we find everywhere at this domain, representing the lees of the wine and inspiring the vigneron in his work. In the winery, no additives are used aside from a very light dose of sulphites, and there is no fining or filtering in the process. The 15 hectares of vines have been cultivated organically since 2002, and this move towards natural production was inspired by encounters with figures such as Claude Bourguignon, a researcher in agrobiology. His son Théophile helps with sales side of things, and his daughter Emmanuelle is their in-house oenologist. A family affair, therefore, which shows no sign of slowing down, such is the passion that propels the Milans.