2017 Termanthia

The big (in all senses) 2017 Termanthia comes from a sub-selection of their oldest plots, 30 centenary vineyards that show more balance on sandy soils. The vines are worked organically (they are in the process of getting everything certified), and the handpicked grapes are destemmed and put through an optical sorting machine and fermented by plot, mostly in oak vats with selected yeasts for a week with a soft extraction, manual punching down of the cap and pumping over by gravity. The wine went through malolactic in barrel, and the aging lasted 20 months, 80% in new barrels and 20% in second-use ones. The oak feels better integrated than in the past, and the nose is subtle and harmonious. It's a big wine with ripe fruit and abundant spiciness but with very good balance, coming through as harmonious and with elegance. It's aging very slowly in bottle. 6,125 bottles and 147 magnums produced. It was bottled in July 2019.