Mas de Libian Vin de France Vin de Pétanque 2023

Biodynamic. Sourced from an assortment of different terroirs—clay/limestone, galets roulés and sandy parcels—Mas de Libian’s consistently delicious vin de soif is based on high-grown Grenache (75%) with roughly equal amounts of Mourvèdre and Syrah (all destemmed). There is also a little fruit from the estate’s decade-old plantings of two southern Rhône natives, Counoise and Vaccarèse and a splash of Couston (the natural offspring of Grenache and Aubun Noir).

Pétanque refers to the popular provençal game of boules, and this wine is correspondingly built for splashing around with friends in casual settings. There was a short, five-day maceration, and the wine was raised exclusively in concrete tanks. It was bottled unfiltered, with only a smidge of sulphur employed. Delicious, crunchy freshness is the name of the game here—a brilliant high-country perfume of blue fruits, pulverised graphite and soft violet before the palate rolls off the bat with bouncy, thirst-quenching juiciness and sweet garrigue. It tastes like the nitrous oxide of the southern Rhône—the Ardèche in liquid form. Another vivacious Vin de Pétanque (is there any other?) and born to go with anything off a smoking grill.