"Smoky. Very, very smoky! (When I comment on this, Danjou says, ‘we find a lot of smoke in slate/schist soils – always mineral and smoky’.) A wine with a soaring architectural structure, skyscraper, iron and mettle, something dauntless, a jaw-clenched vitality. And yet, under that taut gantry of cordite and citric peel, there is honey. There is a cusp of the most delicate white peach, like the white pearl of a new moon, slim sickle silver in the charcoal sky. A wine with what I can only describe as brutal honesty. It shocks, stops, clarifies, magnifies, illuminates, sharpens the beauty. Like a pane of glass, it shows what is. Like a pane of glass, it has unsparing edges. Like a pane of glass, it is strong; it is fragile." - 18 points, Tamlyn Currin for JancisRobinson.com

Winemaker: "It’s fascinating to find, on a single vine, a bunch of gris grapes on one branch and a bunch of blanc grapes on another branch. Our grandfather remembers when these vines were very young. He started working in the vineyard when he was 12 years old. Carignan Gris is a variety that has been largely forgotten. Danjou is adamant that Carignan Gris is a fantastic variety. ‘The acidity is amazing (very important for the future). Compared with Grenache, it always has one point more acidity. It is also a very late variety, harvested after Grenache, which enables the grapes to be on the vine for a long time, so they get true phenolic ripeness.’"

Terroir: La Truffière is a 0.5-ha single vineyard on black slate over limestone.

Ages of the vines: 90–95 years old vines

Vinification: Grapes are hand-harvested // natural fermentation // aged for 20 months in old oak barrels // no fining // no filtration // no acidification // no chaptalisation.

• White
• Carignan Gris
• France, Roussillon
• Domaine Danjou-Banessy
• Dry
• 13.00%
• Ready to Drink And Will Improve