Céline Oulié ‘Les Sens de la Vie’ Madiran 2017

Vinification

Biodynamically farmed, low-yield, hand-harvested Tannat (80%) and Cabernet Franc. Short 4-day maceration and natural fermentation without additives in concrete tanks. Aging in concrete tanks for 6 months. Bottled lightly filtered with minimal added sulfites.

Clos les Mets d’Ames

Céline Oulié is a former environmental engineer who now heads a century-old family farm in the hills of Vic-Bilh. The estate encompasses about 30 hectares, only 8 of which are planted to vines. The rest is either used for growing cereals (about 13 hectares) and rearing sheep, donkeys and bees or simply to cultivate and maintain biodiversity in its natural forest, meadows, lakes and ponds.

The totality of Oulié’s farmland is tended according to biodynamic principles, and the natural wealth of the estate allows it to function as a self-sufficient system. Within the walls of the clos Céline farms mostly classic Western-French red varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Tannat, bottled under the Madiran appellation), but also some Petit Courbu and Gros Manseng from which she produces a rare dry Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh.

All of these wines share a unique balance of intensity and digestibility and are a far cry from the over-extracted, oaky reds and syrupy-sweet whites the region is known for. The dry Pacherenc ‘L’Ove’ is an exceptionally gastronomic white that unites opulence with salinity in a way that reminds us of Antoine Kreydenweiss’s work, the glouglou-cuvée ‘Pimpren’elle’ is an oddly aromatic and invigorating chillable red, and the deep-flavored ‘Sens de la Vie’ is a quirky play on classic-tannic confit de canard-loving Madiran.