Fabien Jouves, 'Haut Berba' VDF White 2021

Producer: Fabien JouvesRegion: Southwest, FranceGrape Varieties: Gros Manseng, Petit MansengViticulture: OrganicCategory: WhiteSize: 750 ml Born into a long line of winemakers, Fabien Jouves once sought to escape his Southwest France village near Cahors to go off to medical school, save lives, cure diseases and what have you. But when his parents began to struggle to maintain their domaine in the early 2000s, Jouves quickly switched gears (and careers) and enrolled at a prestigious winemaking school in Bordeaux, driving home every weekend to manage the vineyards and begin converting to biodynamic agriculture. By 2006, he was cranking out his first vintage, and by 2011, he had earned Demeter certification. Today, he is one of a handful of young, natural-minded vignerons making fresh and approachable, minimal-inventional wines that undermine the region’s somewhat stodgy reputation. All vinification occurs naturally with spontaneous yeast; fining and filtering are avoided; and various ves