Domaine Plageoles Gaillac Le Braucol 2020 (6 Bottles) Gaillac, Southern France

Braucol is more commonly known in the southwest of France as Fer Servadou (or Mansois in Marcillac). This bottling comes from a parcel of 30- to 35-year-old vines grown on clay and limestone soils. You could think of it as a Gaillac Pinot, or Beaujolais with some sappy stems–but of course, it has its own irresistible personality that reflects both a unique grape and its singular terroir.

Florent Plageoles now vinifies this wine with 50% carbonic, and the result is all the brighter and more gluggable for it. Yields are kept low, bringing flavour and intensity, and the aging occurs only in cement tank with no filtration. It’s another vibrant, bright and juicy wine and shares similarities with the Contre Pied, before deviating down a slightly darker fruit path with an emboldened savoury spine. A reductive appearance to start, this quickly makes way for red- and blue-fruited freshness, crushed rock minerality and assertive tannins that evoke a tactile response. Compounding the complexity, there’s notes of green herbs and salinity. It finishes with accomplishment and class. “Du glouglou pour le printemps,” (for glugging in the springtime) says Bernard Plageoles, father of Florent and Romain. But why stop at springtime?