Domaine La Calmette 'Ivres d'Amour' Cahors NV

Profile & Story

Domaine La Calmette is a small, certified organic (AB) and biodynamic (Demeter) estate in Cahors run by winemakers Maya Sallé and Nicolas Fernandez. "Ivres d'Amour" is their vin de liqueur, made from a single parcel of Merlot planted in 1988. The wine is produced by manual destemming and vatting, fermentation over native yeasts, and a slow, gentle maceration; partway through fermentation it undergoes mutage — the addition of eau-de-vie to arrest fermentation and retain natural grape sugar — using an eau-de-vie the estate itself distills in an old still from lees, must, and overly tannic press juice, or from marc. The wine is then aged for two years in dame-jeannes and old barriques, and bottled neither fined nor filtered, without added sulfites, at 55 grams per liter of residual sugar.