White Wine 
Grape varieties – Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris (80-year-old vines) + other minor varieties
Area – 1.2 ha across three plots
Terroir – Limestone, calcareous marl, and Silurian, Liassic, and Triassic schist in Calce, Pyrénées-Orientales.
Harvest – Hand-picked into small crates
Vintages
2024
Direct pressing. Indigenous yeasts. Cold settling. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Aged for 8 months in a 1,500-liter oak vat. Racking in early July. Natural winemaking with no oenological additives. Unfined. Cellulose plate filtration at bottling. Very low dose of sulfites added before bottling.
2023
Grape varieties: Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, and Grenache Noir.
Winemaking: Direct pressing. Indigenous yeasts. Cold settling. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Aged for 8 months in a 1,500-liter oak vat (for the whites) and in stainless steel (for the blanc de noirs). Racking in early July. No oenological additives. Unfined. Cellulose plate filtration at bottling. Very low dose of sulfites added before bottling.
2022 – 2,500 bottles + 80 magnums – bottled 28/07/2023
Total ABV: 13.5% vol. Total SO2: 13 mg/L
pH: 3.20 Glucose + fructose: <1 g/L
Direct pressing. Indigenous yeasts. Cold settling. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Aged for 6 months in a 1,500L oak vat and a small portion in stainless steel. Racked in early July. Natural winemaking with no oenological additives. Unfined. Cellulose pad filtration at bottling. Very low dose of sulfites added before bottling.
2021 – 3,500 bottles + 120 magnums – bottled 08/04/2022
Total ABV: 11.48% vol. Total SO2: <10 mg/L
pH: 3.14 Glucose + fructose: <1 g/L
Direct pressing. Indigenous yeasts. Cold settling. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Aged for 6 months: half the volume in 228L and 500L barrels, and half in stainless steel tanks. Racked in early March. Natural winemaking without oenological additives. Unfined and unfiltered. Very low dose of sulfites added after pressing and before bottling.
2020 – 600 bottles – bottled 29/04/2021
Total ABV: 11.90% vol. Total SO2: 15 mg/L
pH: 3.20 Glucose + Fructose: <0.4 g/L
Direct pressing. Indigenous yeasts. Cold settling. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations in stainless steel tanks. Aged for 6 months in a 500L barrel. Racked in late March. Natural winemaking without oenological additives. Unfined and unfiltered. Very low dose of sulfites added after pressing and before bottling.
2019 – 1,500 bottles – bottled 21/05/2020
Total ABV: 11.60% vol. Total SO2: 17 mg/L
pH: 3.06 Glucose + Fructose: <0.4 g/L
Direct pressing. Indigenous yeasts. Cold settling. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations in stainless steel tanks. Aged for 6 months: half the volume in 228-liter barrels and 500-liter *demi-muids*, and the other half in stainless steel tanks. Racked in late March. Natural winemaking with no oenological additives. Unfined and unfiltered. A very low dose of sulfites added after pressing and before bottling.
Why this name for the wine? A word from the winemaker:
“Babel is an important film for me; it was one of the films I studied for my Master’s degree in Cinema at the Sorbonne. It is a film about diversity and difference, but also about understanding and reconciliation.
The plot of land where this wine originates is very old; it is planted primarily with Grenache Blanc and Gris, interplanted with other varieties such as Macabeu, Carignan, Clairette, and Grenache Noir. It is also a rather complex terroir; a geological fault runs right through the middle, so the same plot features limestone, marl, and schist.
These grape varieties and soil types are like different languages coexisting in the same space.
In the legend of the Tower of Babel, those languages scattered across the world.
For our first harvest in 2019, friends from all over came to help us.
The day we harvested this plot, we realized there were people of seven different nationalities working together. There were Brazilians, French, Colombians, South Africans, Dutch, English, and a Japanese person! There was no single language shared by everyone, yet we all understood each other. Paulo and I looked at each other and said: ‘Babel!’
Afterward, in the cellar, we split the wine into three different vessels for aging: three 228-liter barrels, one 500-liter barrel and a stainless steel tank. This helped us achieve the complexity we were aiming for. When it came time to blend the wine, all those ‘languages’ began speaking together once more.
For us, Babel reflects all that complexity—both in the vineyard and in the cellar.”
Laura Rebessi
The Film
The trailer for the 2006 film Babel by Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu—winner of the Best Director award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the 2007 Oscar for Best Original Score.