(2024) From the Artisans Partisans range, this is mainly Roussanne (75%) with Marsanne and Grenache Blanc from clay and limestone soils, aged in barrel on the lees for about nine months. With only 12.5% I suspect this was picked early, though it shows a gloriously ripe and lifted nose, the fragrant, nutty quality of the oak and the spearmint and floral nuances to the apricot and exotic fruit. The palate has a beautiful balance of sweetness, spice and juiciness, long and really very light on its feet, shimmering into the finish. Unfortunately this vintage may now be sold out.

(2024) An organic Chardonnay in the Artisans Partisans range, from Limoux in the Languedoc. Limoux often offers great value alternatives to the white wines of Burgundy, especially when fermented and matured in French oak as is this example. Vines are 26 to 46 years old, grown at 350 metres altitude. Orange, almond and crushed oatmeal aromas, lemon balm too, in a subtle but creamy style. The sweet ripeness of fruit striking the palate takes one by surprise, then the nuttiness of the oak and richness of texture bolsters the hedonistic character. Acidity and spices refresh the finish nicely.

(2024) A panel of winemakers in selects certain wines to form part of an annual, limited-edition collection. Fruit for this comes from selected plots predominantly on clay-limestone and gravel soils. Fermentation in stainless steel was followed by ageing on the fine lees for ten months. Presented in a very handsome bottle, it is an arresting wine aromatically, with grippy citrus peel, yeasty, and almondy and creamy notes from the time stirred on the lees. Quite full bodied, grapefruit dominates with punchy, tangy and bittersweet flavours, a salty backbone if acidity and again, that lees work creating a creamy and nutty undertone. Watch the video for more information.

(2022) 50% new barrels for this plus 50% one year old, a lovely almond and creamy nose, very classy with a touch of toffee and ripe but refined stone fruits. The palate has lots of creamy weight and texture, the fruit nutty like Cox's Pippins and touching into peach, then a delicious acid balance, a touch of saline character in the finish.

(2017) A most enjoyable, high-end white from the Languedoc, it is made from low-yielding Roussanne, with dashes of Clairette, Grenache Blanc and Picpoul, fermented and aged in French oak barrels from the Vosges forests. A powerful wine, it opens with plenty of oak on display, toasty and creamy, but also with nice hay and light chalky earth, and a substantial apricot and yellow plum fruit. Intense and powerful on the palate too, there's abundant fruit sweetness, but a driving core of acidity and that alcohol too, to give it a bit of extra definition. Not overblown in any way, but a touch less alcohol would have raised its score a point or two for me.

(2012) The Chardonnays of Limoux in the Languedoc are relatively scarce on UK wine shelves, but quality of wines, especially from a clutch of small producers (the local co-op is responsible for the vast majority of production) is extremely high. This barrel fermented and aged wine comes from selected vineyard parcels and has a nose that is at once pretty and rich. Subtle white flower and hazelnut notes join juicy orchard fruits. On the palate the oak ageing and lees stirring adds an oatmeally, limpid weight, but the citrus acidity streaks through with lime at the core, the flesh of the mid-palate building all the time. A fine, expressive Chardonnay with savoury appeal but precision too.

(2011) A blend of many grapes, but principally Sauvignon Blanc (38%), Macabeu (35%) and Vermentino (19%). The 14% alcohol in this wine is a typical and unavoidable by-product of fully ripening grapes in the hot, dry Roussillon. Ageing in large oak barrels, the majority of older oak, has added a crushed oatmeal and gently honeyed toast to white flower and firm apple and mineral notes. On the palate the oak adds just a supporting breadth and very discreet toast, the substance of this wine being the pure old-vine concentration of its fruit and the searing core of mineral acidity that runs through it. Yes, there is a trace of alcohol heat in the finish, but it is the clarity and purpose of the finish that drives this.

(2011) The composition here is quite different, still led by Sauvignon Blanc (30%), but with 25% Grenache Blanc, 25% Marsanne and Roussanne and 10% each of Macabeu and Malvoisie. Ageing in 500-litre demi-muids, only 30% of which were new. It is immediately mellower and more integrated on the nose, with a fine, vegetal and gravel edge of minerality, but a warmth and peachiness to the fruit. On the palate this has that tremendous precision again, but it has a slightly more exotic tone to the fruit and slightly more sweet-edged attack that is delightful. The creamy and lightly spicy oak is there in the finish, but so too is that powerhouse of concentration and lemon and mineral acidity. Long too.

(2006) This vintage weighs in at 13.5% alcohol. The colour is a dark, dense ruby. The nose has an intense, pungent peppery spice aroma with masses of powerful damson and black cherry fruit, and a warming layer of toasty, mellow baked plum-pie. The palate is very concentrated with powerful, bracing flavours that marry spicy, thick tannins to dramatically dark and rasping fruit with a bittersweet, roughening plumskin quality, yet little glimpses of really sweet raspberry and chocolate fruit. The finish is mouth coating with a thick-textured, dry layer of fruit, smoky oak and tannin, in a very impressive wine.

(2004) Superstar of the region Domaine Gauby is the main partner in the La Soula project, and this is a blend of indigenous varieties Marsanne, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Rolle and Chenin Blanc, grown organically at high altitude. After eight months on its lees in stainless steel, the wine is transferred to barriques (50% new) for a further period. This is a singular wine for meditating over as it slowly reveals its charms. I found it to have a pure, almost Raveneau Chablis-like minerality on the nose, with slate, salt and herbal notes, and a great streak of lime. There's a nutty richness beneath, and the palate goes on to display much more texture and depth, with stone-fruit flavours, a hint of oatmeal and cashew nut filling the mid-palate, and a taut mineral structure running through the core of the wine. It ends quite fleshy and savoury, with an endlessly complex finish. Ageability of such a unique wine is difficult to estimate, but there is no hurry to drink it.