2014 Les Deplaudes De Tartaras ‘Le Chanse’

Price: $21 Region: IGP Collines Rhodaniennes < Rhone Valley < FranceGrapes: SyrahVineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic Certified (Ecocert), biodynamic practices; schist and clay soils; 11 months elevage in neutral large barrel; bottled unfined/unfiltered with tiny amount of SO2; 12% ABVWinemaker: Pierre-Andre Deplaude Pierre-Andre is a farmer, tending cows, flowers, grains and fruit on his family farm in the Northern Rhone Valley, and, since 2003, 3.5 hectares of grapes. It’s a healthy, well-rounded ecosystem: the cows provide compost for the vines, the flowers and fruit trees attract the bees that pollinate the cover crops that ensure nitrogen balance in the vineyards soil. In 2008, he began using biodynamic practices, going beyond cultivation without chemicals to relying solely on natural, homeopathic treatments in the vineyards and working according to the lunar calendar. He says, “It clicked for me after several visits in Burgundy and Champagne. There, soil quality is notoriously b