Tasting Notes
"One of the most impressive ranges of wines I tasted at the recent RAW Wine Fair in London was from Domaine de l’Horizon, the 14-ha wine estate on a hillside in Calce in Roussillon, where Domaine Gauby is also based. This wild, rocky countryside is way up the Agly Valley towards the Pyrenees from the flatlands around Perpignan and has an air of the wine region that time forgot." - JancisRobinson.com on a previous vintage
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L’Esprit de l’Horizon Blanc 2014 Côtes Catalanes is just 11.8% alcohol, so I thought it could be very useful for those who are watching their consumption – but I gave it 16.5 out of 20 regardless of this. It certainly doesn’t taste at all wimpy but has both spiciness (perhaps from 20% Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains that has long been grown in quantity in Roussillon for Muscat de Rivesaltes and the like) and raciness (presumably from the 80% Macabeu, a grape variety of which I am a big fan – see this article). Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised by how much flavour is concentrated in here since average yields are just 12 to 15 hl/ha. There’s an agreeable slight chewiness and a strong hint of iodine in this wine that Teibert assured me is a perfect accompaniment to oysters. I reckon it will still be drinking well next year but, says Teibert, ‘there aren’t enough good light whites in the world’."