Banyuls Rimage Domaine de Traginer 2018 500ml

Banyuls Rimage Domaine de Traginer, Biodynamic wine, ‘Vin Doux Naturel’, rich and bursting with dark cherry fruit and sweet spice, ludicrously delicious sweet red. This is a wow factor wine if ever there was one. Banyuls Rimage is the younger style from the appellation. It is fortified with grape spirit to leave natural residual sugar. The wine is then aged for a short period in ‘foudre’, larger, old oak barrels and finally bottled with a tiny amount of sulphur. Dark, sweet unctuous bit with immense freshness, makes your ubiquitous Port seem like a clumsy mess by comparison. Try this wine with some blue cheese or anything chocolate, it is a stunner.

The Domaine du Traginer is an 16 hectare estate which stands on steep schist slopes of Banyuls sur Mer, where the Pyrenees meets the Mediterranean Sea.

It benefits from a very sunny exposure and has been farmed using organic and biodynamic methods since 1997, though Jean-François started experimenting some 10 years earlier. The vineyards have a very low yield, and they aim to heed to ancestral traditions in their purest form. Accordingly, part of the vineyard is still ploughed with the help of a mule, guided by his 'Traginer', the Catalan term for muleteers. Anicet, Jean-François's uncle, is the last Traginer in Banyuls, as well as the most famous. At Domaine du Traginer, they never use selected yeasts and enzymes, only the best grapes and natural fermentations. Some wines are produced without sulphites. This is traditional Banyuls at its best.