VINYER DE LA RUCA
Silvano 2020
Roussillon, France
Grenache from twenty year old vineyard in Cosprons, just a few kilometres north of Banyuls. The vines are planted on a steep north facing slope some 350 metres above sea level and there is a little more depth and fertility to the soils here compared to Manuel’s other sites. The grapes are crushed by foot and after just three days pressed off to old barrels for nine months of élevage. The aromas really jump out of the glass here and are resolutely Mediterranean, savoury, with its dark, sun-kissed fruit, flowers and herbs.
Grenache
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Vinyer de la Ruca is the project of Manuel Di Vecchi Staraz, a young guy from Tuscany who looks after old vines of Grenache, Carignan and Mourvèdre a few hundred metres from the Mediterranean in the Pyrénées.
The fruit grows wild on sheer shale terraces along walls of dry stone. It is battered by wind from the sea and soaked in Mediterranean sun. The vines are tended without machines or chemicals, by hand and mule.
Crops are low, grapes are crushed by foot, de-stemmed by hand and fermented naturally and the wines are bottled with no additions at all. Manuel’s wines from this site have a concentration and intensity of flavour that is thrillingly unique.
In recent years, Manuel has joined up with some friends to make another collection of wines from organic vineyards under the name Tutti Frutti Ananas. As the name suggests, these wines, though made in the same spirit, are the kind of easygoing, breezy wines that the guys like drinking day to day.