A Wine to Connect With

Olivier Cousin is a minor celebrity in the natural wine producing world. His ideals and passion about winemaking comes across in the wine. You can taste it. And that is truly an amazing thing.

The Cousin Anjou Pur Breton is 100% Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. The average age of the vines is 40 years old and hand-harvested grapes are brought to the winery by a horse where they are de-stemmed and gently pressed. The wine is beautifully juicy and fruit forward with aromas of ripe plum, cherry, red apple, and chalky tones. Crushed strawberries mixed with Bing cherry and fresh red apple flavors explode on the palate. It's all rounded out with some fine tannins and mild acidity at the finish, keeping things from being overly ripe.

This wine has a great versatility when it comes to food pairing, (one of my favorite things to do and this wine makes it easy). Roast chicken, seared duck, charcuterie, cheese, and heck why not some rabbit or pork? Ideally I see myself having a picnic starring this wine, some paté and soppresata, a hunk of sheeps milk blue cheese and some super crusty french bread. Perfection.

Olivier Cousin treats his vineyard like his garden, he cultivates it with the care one would cultivate a small and very treasured patch of tomatoes. He uses horses to plow his vineyards and not just because it makes better wine but because he really enjoys working with animals. To spend a bit more time in his vineyards with his horse Joker or letting some heavy machinery do the job, is an easy choice and one that really brings a connection to what's being created.

I tasted this wine and loved it without knowing the background of the winemaker. Without knowing his vineyards are certified biodynamic and that he only uses indigenous yeasts and shuns enzymes, sugar, and sulfites. Now, I enjoy it all the more. I'm drawn into the place and the people who deliver us some incredible juice, all I can do is be thankful.