Julien Pineau Monkey Gone to Heaven VDF Rouge 2023

Country: France

Region: Loire

Type: Red Wine

Grape: Cinsault

Monkey Gone to Heaven is 100% organically-farmed Cinsault. Julien Pineau first produced this wine after the the disastrous vintage of 2021, when he lost 90% of the fruit to a mixture of mildew, frost, & hail, so he had to buy fruit to survive. For this wine, he called on his friend in the south at Domaine de la Providence in Provence, where he had once worked. 

Julien rented a bus to go with harvesters to pick and brought the fruit back to his property, and continued to do in 2022 and 2023, both because the vintages have been difficult in the Loire and because the wine is simply delicious. He gives the grapes a one-week carbonic maceration, before pressing off and aging in steel tanks. 

Light, fresh and chillable, this wine goes well with any food or on its own.