Domaine Lapeyre

Pascal Lapeyre is the fourth generation on a property his great-grandfather began in 1909 at Salies-de-Béarn, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, roughly midway between the Atlantic and the Pyrenees. The house bottles under two names, Lapeyre and Guilhemas; it is the Lapeyre label that Arcana Cabinet lists.

Everything here is Béarn, a small appellation worked in all three colours. The red is built on Tannat with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, the rosé draws on the same varieties, and the white comes from Gros and Petit Manseng together with Raffiat de Moncade, the old local white that this estate alone vinifies under the appellation. The range also includes the Guilhemas bottlings in red, white and rosé.

The vineyards lie on clay-limestone in a south-facing amphitheatre looking towards the Pyrenees, farmed by lutte raisonnée without chemical fertilisers or insecticides and picked by hand from late September into early October. Série 1909, named for the year the family arrived, is pure Tannat from the parcel known as des framboisiers: fully destemmed, macerated for three weeks and aged eighteen months in oak barrel before bottling unfiltered, it runs to dark bramble and preserved red fruit, a vanilla note and Tannat's firm, savoury grip. Arcana Cabinet lists the Béarn rouge, rosé and blanc, the Série 1909, and Joyau du Vigneron, a moelleux from late-picked Petit Manseng.