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2024 Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge “Il Fait Soif”
Maxime-François Laurent
Il fait soif roughly translates to something like “It’s thirsty weather” or “It’s thirsty out there.” The term was coined in the 1950s by a French philosopher musing about how his countrymen viewed wine as a thirst-quenching beverage, of which one could always find a reasonable excuse to indulge.
Maxime-François Laurent has made quite the homage to that reasoning, a thirst-quenching breuvage of Grenache with a dollop of Syrah, vinified whole-cluster carbonic style, for maximum refreshment of all sorts. Maxime, whose mother, Michèle Aubéry, runs Domaine Gramenon, logically adopted the Gramenon philosophy for his own project. Having grown up around the domaine’s organically and biodynamically maintained vineyards, giving the fruit destined for his own bottlings the same attentive care was an obvious choice.
Maxime’s idyllic vineyards sit in the northern reaches of the southern Rhône Valley. There are gently rolling hills, beautifully forested where not planted in vines, and the views are sublime. This land produces fantastic Grenache, cooler and fresher than that of the flatlands, and the vinification style here fits the terroir like a glove.
Inspired by the wines of Marcel Lapierre, Maxime’s “Il Fait Soif” is made for immediate, easy-drinking pleasure. Serve it now, serve it cool. This may be our most quaffable Southern Rhône red.
—Chris Santini
| Wine Type: | red |
| Vintage: | 2024 |
| Bottle Size: | 750mL |
| Blend: | 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Cinsault |
| Appellation: | Côtes du Rhône |
| Country: | France |
| Region: | Southern Rhône |
| Producer: | Maxime François Laurent |
| Winemaker: | Michèle Aubèry-Laurent & Maxime François Laurent |
| Vineyard: | 15 - 30 years, 4 ha |
| Soil: | Clay, Limestone |
| Aging: | Wine ages for 6 months in stainless steel cuves |
| Farming: | Organic (practicing) |
| Alcohol: | 13.5% |
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About The Producer
Maxime François Laurent
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Where the newsletter started
Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch