LA BASTIDES "SELON LA VIEILLE TRADITION PROVENCAL" VIN CUIT

LA BASTIDES "SELON LA VIEILLE TRADITION PROVENCAL" VIN CUIT, PROVENCE, FRANCE (750 ML). 100% Grenache. Organic

lover! "Vin Cuit", a veneable Provencal traditional dessert wine was almost extinct, but lucky for us Salen family has been devoted to preserving the tradition.

The wine that Jean Salen single-handsurrected from old recipes he dug up when he launched his own production (today there are only a handful of producers). It is a traditional wine from the region of Aix-en-Provence, and Thomas Jefferson noted 17 bottles of vins cuits de Provence in one of his inventories at Montpellier. The wine can be made of any number of varieties, but in the case of Domaine Les Bastides it is the juice of Grenache and only Grenache that simmers in a cauldron over a wood fire for hours on end, constantly stirred, never boiled, until it's reduced by 25-30%, whereupon it's chilled down and put into tank to ferment very slowly, then filtered and bottled before Christmas without any added sugar or spirits. Traditionally, this was served during Christmas holidays with 13 desserts symbolizing Christ and his apostles.

Les Bastides does not make this wine every year because it requires a concentrated vintage (and it does come from a single vintage even though it's labeled without a year because the production is too small to order an expensive run of labels specifying the vintage; Carole orders a large run to be used for multiple vintages).

This Vin Cuit is a rich and surprisingly elegant wine, redolent of apricots and quince, and it is shockingly delicious. Production averages 150 cases and is made without sulfites because the level of sugar and acidity protects the wine and holds it steady. Though traditionally consumed in Provence during the holidays, this makes a truly special and unique sweet wine to conclude any celebratory meal. Organic, unfiltered. 12%abv. About: Les Bastides is located due north of Aix in the hills descending to the Durance River, which marks the border between the Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse départements. The domain has 62 acres in vines divided into 17 parcels.

In 1967 Jean Salen bought Domaine Les Bastides and fell in love with planting vineyard parcels and cultivating grapes. In the process, he became a skilled viticulturist. Making wine and managing a cellar was never his strong suit (that became his daughter’s forte when she came of age, and she helped him immensely there), but even so by 1976 he felt confident enough to take the momentous step of withdrawing from the local co-op to produce and bottle his own wine.

The first wine he made was vin cuit, the famous cooked wine of Aix—a wine steeped in tradition but in Jean’s time all but forgotten. This may not have been the most commercial product with which to launch a marque, but Jean was committed to Provence’s traditions and to natural wine (long before it became cool), and he had always been a man to follow the commands of the heart. So he made a few cauldrons of vin cuit.(Importer)