From mainly Clairette vines planted on a south-facing slope on granite soils in the warm St-Julien en St-Alban zone (in the Ardèche on the northern bank of the Ouvèze--to the west of the Rhône River, at the southern edge of the northern Rhône Valley). They are organically farmed and harvested by hand. Whole-cluster press with spontaneous fermentation and no sulfur in cement tanks; aged 6-8 months on fine lees before bottling. The wine's moniker is a reference to" Adèle Blanc-Sec", the name of a newspaper comic strip and its heroine that debuted in 1976 and was set in Paris circa 1912. Eric is a trailblazer, putting all the but extinct regions of Brézème and Saint Julien en Saint Alban on the map. He experiments with concepts you rarely if ever hear about elsewhere: finding acidity in Marsanne through anforas, not working the soil in favor of cover crops, "infusion" macerations, working on his own grafts, rediscovering forgotten grapes adaptable to the very real threat of climate change...
