Les Arches de Bellivière VDF Blanc "Caragouille"

50% Grenache Blanc/25% Viognier/25% Vermentino. Caragouille--named for the tiny snails found in the vineyard--is Bellivière's first macerated white and is part of their "Les Arches de Bellivière" line of Vin de France wines. The vines are not part of the estate but rather from a Ventoux (southern Rhône) vineyard; the Nicolas family of Bellivière has partnered with a like-minded grower who also farms biodynamically and whose fruit goes into some other Les Arches wines. The Nicolases harvest the fruit themselves and whisk them by refrigerated truck directly up to their Jasnières winery in the northern Touraine. The bunches are destemmed, co-fermented spontaneously without sulfur in vat and macerated for 3 weeks with an occasional punchdown. The wine is vat-aged and bottled in clear glass with a small amount of sulfur and without filtration.