2018 Mas des Caprices Avis d'blanc Frais

Region: Leucate < Languedoc < France

Grapes: Grenache Blanc, Macabeo

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified organic & biodynamic farming (Biodyvin); limestone soil; stainless steel ferment; bottled unfined/unfiltered with minimal added SO2; 12% ABV

Winemaker: Mireille and Pierre Mann

Husband and wife team Mireille and Pierre Mann, both children of Alsace winemakers, had been running their own restaurant in Alsace but gave it up to start Mas Des Caprices and make wine in 2003.  Their estate, certified organic and biodynamic, sits outside the dreamy town of Leucate on the Mediterranean coast in France’s AOC Fitou region.  And this wine, whose name translates awkwardly as “notice of fresh white” is the very definition of a coastal wine, evocative of foam, sea spray, and sun-heated stone.  It’s light, dry and refreshing, somewhere between salty lemon water and pebble juice, with a chalky, slightly bitter finish (pomelo) and bracing acidity.  Pairs with yacht rock and Lemonheads.