Mas Karolina--Good to the Last Drop--L'Enverre

On a chilly late-winter day, Dan and I visited Caroline Bonville of Mas Karolina, in the Roussillon. Driving to see her vineyards, we headed up switchback after switchback, finally cresting the barren and jagged peaks above the village of Maury, to take a look at her century-old Carignan and Grenache vines. More than almost any other place I’ve seen, this landscape is brutally rugged, unwelcoming, and wholly unsuitable for farming just about anything. Yet Caroline manages to coax something special from her parcels of old vines every year.

Underfoot, the ground was rocky, with a slight green fuzz of grass eeking out an existence among the vines. Above us, dozens of windmills were a visual reminder of the powerful wind, a near-constant force of nature the vines have to contend with. Taking in these bare, gnarled trunks, pruned close to the ground, I thought of the Little Prince and the Baobab trees - “the tree the God planted upside down” - the sturdy vines seemed à l’enverre, or upside down.

These vines are what make her top red wine--a cuvée she named L’Enverre--So it’s actually your glass (and the bottle) that will be upside down.

There's no metaphor here. She simply believes that some glasses, once they are nearly empty, need to be upended into the mouth, with the head tilted back, to savor la derniére goutte--the last drop. Like wiping the last bit of sauce from your plate with that piece of bread (or licking the plate), some bottles of wine must be finished completely, with none, not a drop left to rinse out.

Mas Karolina L'Enverre Rouge 2021

A remarkable blend of century-old vines of Carignan (60%) and Grenache Noir (40%) grown on the inhospitable hillsides surrounding Maury. As concentrated, dark, and brooding as a red wine comes. Saturated with aromas of black fruits, fig, black olive, and savory spices leads to a silky, succulent, teeth-staining wine full of finesse.