VICKY & FERGUS CLAGUE
FRANCE, GARD, JUNAS
Breakfast Grenache! We are so pleased to see the welcome return of one of our favourite wines, initially conceived of as a one-off cuvée, we now have a new vintage available: introducing Sa Fille 2022 from Fergus & Vicky Clague.
Ferg and Vicky ran Hand Made Food in Blackheath for 21 years. In 2014, blown by a wind of change, Fergus and family arrived in the south of France. A chance meeting with Thierry Forestier, Yves & Vincent Moulin and Laurent Bagnol found them thrust into the heart of the natural winemaking community in the Gard.
Sa Fille is a welcome tonic to the abrupt change in seasons: a bright, generous, chillable red that works fast to bring you a restorative dose of that southern French sunshine.
Hand harvested from their vineyard in the Gard commune of Souvignargues: less than half a hectare of 80-90-year-old vines on grès soils in the foothills of the Cevennes, surrounded by olive groves, and Garrigue - dry, scrubby wild evergreen woods of green oaks, pines trees, juniper, thyme, rosemary, lavender, and fennel. Over the grès, is clay that holds the water well, the topmost part of the vineyard is a favourite place for wild boar to come to drink, root around, and help turn over the earth for Vick & Ferg.
Otherwise unploughed, wild plants flourish among the vines until flowering, at which point they're cut back to reduce competition for water and nutrients. Farming organically, '22 also marked the year when they began to work with compost teas - based on lactic fermentations of fish and molasses - and essential oils (derived from savory, oregano, thyme) to maximise plant health and reduce dependency on copper treatments. The foot of each vine is cleared a with a hoe for good air circulation, in efforts to avoid mildew.
All in all, the weather in the 2022 growing season was good in Souvi' - spring was mild and not too humid, so pressure from mildew was manageable. Even though the summer was worryingly hot, they had heavy rains in late August which swelled the fruit and revived the vines.
2022 - Sa Fille - Grenache
Sa Fille (named for Ferg's daughter, Saffie) is a 10-day whole bunch maceration of Grenache, in a tank topped with carbon dioxide and semi-filled with some direct-press juice. Fruit was basket pressed back to tank, before bottling in spring with no additions.
Best served with a chill, we hope you enjoy it.