Auguste 2018

Auguste is the outlier in the Sous le Végétal range, the one red among the Muscats, made from avgoustiatis, an old Greek variety most of the wine world has never heard of. Sous le Végétal is what happened when Jason Ligas and Patrick Bouju took their shared instinct for living wine to Samos, a Greek island a mile off the Turkish coast, and set about restoring its volcanic slopes with permaculture, herbs and biodynamic care rather than chemistry. Fermented with nothing added and raised across a mix of amphora, concrete, steel and old barrel, it goes into its black wax-sealed bottle unfiltered and unsulphured. Light on its feet, with bright red fruit, dried herb and a warm, stony finish. A Greek red with nothing to prove and plenty to say.