Les Aspres 2023, Pierre Cros

Pierre Cros is a retired rugby player, a formidable man and a maverick winemaker. Based in Badens in Minervois, he has scant regard for the authorities, making wines that he wants to drink, even if the authorities don’t allow the growing of certain grapes such as Touriga Nacional and Nebbiolo. His 20 hectares of vines include the classic Southern French varieties of Grenache, Carignan and Syrah with some low yielding vines dating from 1905. “I neither pretend to teach you how you should taste my wines… nor when… or why… or (even worse) with whom. I would just like to outline certain reflexions and ideas, which in my opinion are important for today’s wine world. I would like to tell you, for example, that above all I am a peasant, a hillbilly if you like, with all my knowledge and all my doubts. And I am surely a full man, proud about his roots and proud to rrrrrole the R’s like people do in my country.” Pierre Cros