2020, Domaine du Pélican, ARBOIS SAVAGNIN "Macération Pelliculaire"

For the third time Pélican has made this "skin contact cuvée" (orange wine), vinifying a small portion of their Savagnin grapes as if they were red, fermenting them with their skins. This gives the wine additional structure without losing its tension and vibrancy.

Pale gold and a good bit darker than the two Savagnin Ouillé 2020s. There's no mention of flor but it does smell a little like a wine with brief flor influence, and all that delicious complexity from the skins: spiced bitter orange, sour apple, dried grasses, a slight and not unattractive sweaty quality verging on lapsang tea. Smells wild and free, and more intense still on the day after opening. Bone dry, chewy but so rich in apricot and bitter-orange fruit. Deep and long, with moderate tannins that taste spicy, though it seems as if the spiciness is as much in the texture as in the flavour. Like the other Savagnin 2020s, intensely salty and fresh. Great finish, complex, gripping. Powerful and still refined in its skin-fermented character. 17.5 Jancis Robinson (2022)

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2028