2023 Mary Taylor 'Christophe Avi' Rosé Agenais IGP, Southwest France

IGP Agenais was established in 2011 to capture the typicity of the wines from the Lot-et-Garonne area of Southwest France.  This rosé from the lovely Christophe Avi, is made from his younger vines, no more than 20 years, and consists of juice from Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The taste is something like minerally orange blossom, lime leaf and lots of grip. Christophe makes wines with minimal intervention – no chemicals in the vineyard, all natural yeast, a light filtration – so that you get aromatics of earth, wet stone, nuanced fruit – those which makes wines of terroir so elegant.

From Mary Taylor Wine:

"What is Agenais? This is the IGP that was established in 2011 to capture the typicity of the wines from the Lot-et-Garonne area of Southwest France. Our rosé from the lovely Christophe Avi is grown in and around Laplume, south of the Garonne, which enjoys the sandy soils that extend from the Landes Forest. Agen itself is a sleepy but lovely medieval town deep in the Aquitaine.

We adore working with Christophe Avi, our otherwise source of Buzet wines. He discontinued working with the large co-op of Buzet roughly 30 years ago when he discovered a passion for biodynamic farming, and since has cultivated 20 hectares of deeply regenerative and biodiverse vineyards....

...When Christophe is not on the tractor or tending to his wines, he is rescuing cats, cooking for his lovely wife, and being an all around kind and decent human. The Avi family had cooked for us for days in preparation for our last visit and we spent so much time playing in the vineyards – I left feeling like this is exactly the kind of family business I am so proud to support."