Domaine de l'Hortus Le Bergerie Blanc 2024

From the importer:

Vigneron Jean Orliac and wife Marie-Thérèse bought 50 hectares of wooded, garrigue-dense slopes in 1978, tending the old scrub vines back from disrepair. Jean had been a professor of agriculture at the University of Montpelier, but slowly left teaching to establish his own domain among the staggering limestone cliffs that he once scaled as an avid mountain climber.

Initially the grapes were all sold to the local co-op. But in 1990, a decade later, the Orliacs bottled their first vintage, and soon after built their own winery. Today, their children, Yves, Martin, Francois, and Marie are all involved in running the domain.

This wine is made from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Roussanne, Viognier, Petit Manseng, Chardonnay, and Muscat Blanc à Petits Grain grown in the Pic-Saint-Loup appellation, a cool and humid pocket of the Languedoc in France's Mediterranean south.

It's harmoniously aromatic and rounded, showing floral and herbaceous notes of acacia, linden blossom and sweet chervil, supported by grapefruit, lemon, and soft stonefruit.