La Poudre d’Escampette Vins de Cabanon Alain Castex 2021

La Poudre d’Escampette Les Vins de Cabanon, biodynamic wine, Grenache, Carignan, full of energy and oozing freshness. You need to open this red on a fruit day for it to sing at its best.  It is a wine that full of the earth’s energy. Ripe, fresh red fruits leap out, pure earth and spice and herbs mingle with the fruit. La Poudre d’Escampette is one of the collection of natural wines made by Alain Castex at his tiny estate, Les Vins de Cabanon. From an expression meaning to ‘turn on one’s heals’, the wine is certainly not something to turn you away unless you have stashed a couple of bottles to take with you.  This garage red is stunning and delicious in every way. In the summer, it is a fantastic red to served chilled on a hot day.

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.