A powerful expression of Muscat d’Alexandrie that builds itself on the scorching heat of the 2022 vintage. An aromatic grape, here the developed level of ripeness takes things in a different, more serious direction, with spicy aromas of cracked white peppercorn, aniseed and bitter citrus peel.
Out of glass the wine is mouth-coating and intense, feeling honeyed and nectar-like, somehow ancient. Lychee, Seville orange marmalade and that medicinal quality that seems to run through all of Fatim's wine, this is a serious expression of the grape like we've never tried before. Furthermore, the wine evolves impressively when open over a number of days.
The grapes were split after harvest, half de-stemmed and half remaining as whole bunches, which were then crushed and macerated over a number of weeks. The wine was then pressed into steel tanks to rest for one year before bottling with no additions at any stage.
Born in Morocco, now residing in the tranquil isolation of the mountainous Pyrénées-Orientales, Fatim initially trained as a herbalist before fulfilling her long-term goal of making wine. After a lot of searching she was able to acquire her own ‘Mas’ – an old remote farm - that comprised 3.5 hectares of vines aged between 20 and 80 years of age and a place to live, in the Aspres region at the foothills of the Canigou mountain range.
Sitting at around 700 metres' altitude between the villages of Fourques and Trouillas, the vines sit in complete seclusion and were tended to by a grower practising organic farming before her who wanted to ensure that the land fell into the right hands before retiring. Using her previous training, Fatim works in the vineyard with her own brand of biodynamics, using homemade fermented plant extracts from the diverse flora of the hillsides. The arid soils are treated with copper only when absolutely necessary.
