Ezo Alain Castex Les Vins de Cabanon 2021

Ezo Alain Castex Les Vins de Cabanon, Biodynamic wine, sensational garage wine.  Simply superb freshness and life in this wine.  It moves and develops with the seasons as if the grapes were still dangling on the vine inside the bottle.  This is how all wines should be, so pure and vital, so mouth watering and crunchy.  Ezo Alain Castex is a blend of Syrah and Merlot.  On first opening, the nose can be somewhat surprising;  Or, down right weird but give the wine just a few minutes to breath deeply the life giving oxygen it needs to find itself again having been left dormant in the bottle.  Then it will explode with juicy berry fruits, scents of herbs and garrigue, sea salt and olives, breath it in and savour the wine, magnificent.

Alain Castex and his partner Ghislaine were two of the original ‘Garagistas’, small vigneron/wine makers whose limited means forced them to make wine literally ‘in the Garage’.

The original vineyard purchased in the early 90s is called Le Casot de Mailloles and is based on the steep schistous slopes above the Mediterranean in Banyuls. In 2015 Alain sold Le Casot and being in his 60s moved into semi-retirement. He still retains a tiny vineyard where he indulges his lifelong passion for farming and wine production. The single hectare of vineyard where he now produces Les Vins de Cabanon is situated on the sandy, clay soils of Trouillas a little inland from Banyuls and follows the same natural principles which Alain used at ‘Le Casot’. The production is tiny, with just a couple of thousand bottles of four different wines produced each year and a UK allocation of just 150 bottles of each. His wines are some of the most vibrant, energetic and simply delicious you will ever try. They ooze sunshine and vitality and as spring approaches, they make for absolutely perfect drinking. Alain Castex is a rare find in the wine world, a man who has never compromised his belief that natural production is the only way to capture the essence of his grapes and terroir. Even in the early days when natural wine was rejected as poor quality and faulty and when appellations refused to accept the authenticity of these noble bottles, (Alain was refused the local appellation twice and then gave up and simply labelled his wine, ‘Vin de Table’), Alain stuck to his guns. His dedication and commitment to his vision have over the years earned him the respect he deserves and today, his rare bottles have a passionate following.