Domaine Gregory White White Is Blanc

About Domaine Gregory White White Is Blanc

Domaine Gregory White White Is Blanc is like walking on the beach on a cool, sunny day. Bright green apple and zesty lemon, sea spray, and bracing acidity. Hand-harvested Terret Bourret (a vineyard mutation of the red Languedoc grape Terret) from organic vineyards. Native yeast fermentation in stainless steel vessels. Bottled after a soft racking, no fining, and no added sulfites.

About Domaine Gregory White

From Master of Wine Rosemary George:

Gregory, despite his name, is very firmly French; his father is English, but his mother is French and he was born in Paris and was brought up in France, so speaks French rather than English. Wine for him was a complete change of direction; he was working as a sports journalist in Paris, but his wife’s family comes from the Médoc, and he had what he called his Damascus moment in a vineyard in Bordeaux and realized that he wanted to change direction. Initially, he worked as a sommelier and in a wine shop, but he was selling wines that he did not choose and realized that he was really interested in the plant, so he studied enology in Beaune and worked for Yannick Pelletier in St. Chinian while he looked for vineyards, and chance led to a meeting with somebody in Aspiran who had five hectares for sale, two plots of old vines, red and white, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsaut and Carignan, and Terret blanc and Grenache blanc, with an average of 50 years. There is half a hectare of 70-year-old Carignan and Cinsaut and some 85-year-old Grenache, the oldest Grenache in the village, and the Syrah is a bit younger. It sounded as though Gregory had really struck luck.

When we met, he had just completed his 4th harvest, for he had acquired his vines just before the 2013 vintage. He was delighted to find that no products had been used in the vineyard for fifteen years; the soil was really alive. Gregory favors the natural school of winemaking with natural yeast and as little so2 as possible, preferably not even at bottling, but has he observed, it is not a dogma. He aims for the best possible grapes – and the work is very hands-on. He shares cellar space in a large barn with a couple of other small wine growers.

Aspiran comes within the cru of Pézenas, but all Gregory’s wines are Vin de France. The soil is alluvial, sand with galets, and good drainage, which gives suppleness to his wines. His labels are fun. Who else could have a label saying white is blanc, let alone white is rouge?