Libre Cours Blanc 2016

What does a négociant do, precisely? It's a familiar enough term, but not everybody understands his calling. Basically, he buys in grapes or wine or must from a large number of small growers within an AOC, blends the ensuing wine to his own recipe and bottles it under his own label. Samuel Delafont became both a négociant and a winemaker, because after ten years as an export agent he was keen to get his hands dirty and to produce some of the great wines of the Languedoc. And here's one of them, with flowers and citrus on the nose and a sumptuous, stone fruit palate. The loss to pen-pushing is the great gain of the wine world!

"Samuel Delafont worked as a wine consultant for ten years, from 2000 to 2010. He Established Maison S. Delafont in 2010, having decided to create his own winery to highlight some of the best wines of Languedoc. His first releases were from Pic Saint Loup, La Clape and Limoux, and since then he has added a Minervois, an AOP Languedoc range and most recently the Vin de France range, Libre Cours. Maison S. Delafont is family owned and produces a total of 45,000 bottles per year.

Maison S. Delafont is a négociant-éleveur, which is to say they don't just purchase and bottle fruit or juice from the best Domaines of the Languedoc, but they blend and improve on it at their own winery. They select only growers who employ biodynamic, organic or sustainable farming methods. Meticulously attentive to blending and ageing, they strive for balance between elegance and extraction and between typicity of terroir and final wine style, seeking an ideal blend of freshness and fruitiness.

Samuel Delafont became enthralled by the wine world at the age of 21. Four years later, in 2000, he set up an export agency called Vinipartner, advising southern French winegrowers on how to perfect their range and maximise sales. After ten years of working with wineries in the Languedoc and Rhône he wanted to roll up his sleeves and get involved with wine production, setting up his own winery and assuming the role of winemaker/merchant. He now has the freedom to create and develop great Languedoc wines.

60% Viognier and 40% Vermentino, the wine has a powerful nose of white flowers and fresh citrus with a balanced, fleshy fruit packed palate and a lengthy, elegant finish."