Villa Volubilia - Volubilia Red 2022

A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Tempranillo, shaped by Bordelais hands on the clay-limestone of Guerrouane.

Cabernet Sauvignon leads the blend here, alongside Syrah and Tempranillo, on the clay-limestone soils of the Guerrouane appellation. It is a cuvée conceived by Bordeaux winemakers, but made under the Meknès sun. The grapes spend twenty-four hours in a cold room, then are hand-sorted on a table. Fermentation starts at low temperature to preserve as much fruit as possible. The wine is aged fifteen months in concrete tank, with no oak. It is an intense black with ruby highlights. The nose brings together leather, tobacco and mocha. The attack is smooth and delicate, with round, fine tannins. A generous red for the table, with no hard edges.

Villa Volubilia, also known as Domaine de la Zouina, covers 115 hectares, 85 of them under vine, at the foot of Mount Zehroun, 20 km from Meknès, in the heart of the Guerrouane appellation. Its name nods to Volubilis, the city founded by the Berbers and later taken over by Rome, where wine and olive oil were already being made. In 2002, two Bordelais, Gérard Gribelin and Philippe Gervoson, both Pessac-Léognan veterans, took over the estate after a golfing trip and a sudden passion for its clay-limestone soils. Christophe Gribelin runs it today. Farming is “raisonnée”, in a Mediterranean climate of dry summers swept by the chergui, the east wind off the Sahara, followed by stormy autumns and wet winters. Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Chardonnay, Viognier, Vermentino and Caladoc are all grown here.