Domaine D'Audaux Petit Manseng Sec 2019

14.5% abv, from 3 different vineyards harvested during October 2019 across a three week period. The first harvest was from Monein vines on a south facing warm site with clay soils and "poudingues". The second was from a parcel on flysch soils in Lasseube and the last from an older vineyard in a different sector of Monein with a cooler microclimate with clay and galets. The intention is to use the different parcels which show different aspects of petit manseng - tropicality and richness, freshness and elegance, and complexity and depth. Each on their own would lack balance, but together they make a much more complete wine. The grapes were handpicked by us and the other villagers of Audaux, then sorted berry by berry by hand, trodden by foot and pressed in a basket press. Fermentation started after three days of settling, and for this vintage took an extraordinarily long time to complete - it was March 2020 before the wine finished its alcoholic fermentation in barrel, and we then continued to age it on its fine lees until bottling without fining in September 2020. Sulphur additions were very limited, around 30% less than in 2018. The bottles then were aged for a further 5 months before first release. The wine is very similar to the first vintage, but is somewhat less obviously oaked (we used a slightly older blend of barrels in the ageing process), and whilst the lab analysis would say otherwise, the wine seems to have slightly lower (though still very high!) acidity. Grape: Petit Manseng Region: Jurancon, France