Domaine Sainte Croix - La Serre 2015

Here's a fittingly off-piste wine to mark my first review for The Morning Claret.

Domaine Sainte Croix was created in 2004 by an English couple, Jon and Elizabeth Bowen. Jon used to be a globe-trotting winemaker, Elizabeth an agricultural economist. They dreamed of making wine in Languedoc or Roussillon, and searched rather specifically for land with old Carignan and Grenache vines on limestone. They finally found the perfect 13ha estate in Hautes Corbières, just between the Languedoc and Roussillon borders. Both quit their jobs.

La Serre is the limestone hill that overlooks the Fraissé-des-Corbières village. The wine is made from 60% Grenache Blanc and 40% Grenache Gris. Both were co-planted in the 1960s at 200-250m, with a low yield of 22hl/ha. I suspect it's the Grenache Gris that makes the wine so interesting and confusing at the same time. Grenache Gris is a pink mutation of Grenache Noir, just as Pinot Gris is related to Pinot Noir. I love that they opted to make white wine in a r…