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A biodynamic orange wine from South-West France that refuses to follow the usual rules
Some wines are made to fit neatly into a category.
Others, like Folle Odyssée 2023, from Domaine de Beyssac, seem to ask: why should we?
A skin-contact white made from Gros Manseng, a grape far more commonly associated with the sweet wines of Jurançon, this is not your typical South-West French wine.
It is aromatic, textured, fresh and completely unexpected.
And perhaps that is exactly why we love it.
Gros Manseng, but not as you know it
If you know Gros Manseng, you may associate it with the foothills of the Pyrenees and the wonderfully rich, sweet wines of Jurançon.
The grape is naturally aromatic, capable of producing wines bursting with exotic fruit, citrus and ripe orchard fruit.
But here, Domaine de Beyssac takes it in a completely different direction.
Instead of stopping fermentation with residual sweetness, they allow the grape to express itself as a dry, skin-contact wine.
The result is Gros Manseng with a completely different personality.
What exactly is an orange wine?
The colour gives the clue.
Unlike a conventional white wine, where the grapes are pressed and the juice is separated from the skins relatively quickly, a skin-contact wine allows the white grapes to spend time in contact with their skins.
This extracts colour, flavour and texture.
The result can range from pale golden to deep amber, with a texture that often feels broader and more structured than a conventional white.
Folle Odyssée is therefore neither a traditional sweet Jurançon nor a conventional dry white.
It occupies its own little corner of the wine world.
An odyssey that starts in the vineyard
Domaine de Beyssac is known for its commitment to biodynamic farming, with a philosophy centred on the health of the soil, the vines and the wider ecosystem.
For Folle Odyssée, the grapes are harvested manually in small crates.
They are then destemmed and carefully sorted before pressing and settling.
In the cellar, fermentation takes place naturally in stainless-steel tanks at around 20°C, using indigenous yeasts.
There is no attempt to standardise the wine.
The aim is to let the grape take the journey.
Aromatic, tense and completely unexpected
The nose immediately reveals why Gros Manseng is such an exciting variety.
There are aromas of apple, exotic fruit and citrus, creating an aromatic profile that is generous without becoming heavy.
Then comes the freshness.
That tension is essential.
It prevents the wine from feeling overly rich and gives the exotic fruit a wonderfully energetic character.
On the palate, the skin contact brings texture and a slightly different dimension to the fruit.
This is a wine that makes you stop for a moment and think:
What exactly am I drinking?
And that is part of the fun.
Made for adventure
Folle Odyssée is not the wine you open when you want everything to be predictable.
It is the bottle you bring when friends are coming over, when the food is a little adventurous, or when you simply want to taste something different.
It works beautifully as an aperitif, but its aromatic intensity and texture make it particularly interesting with Asian cuisine.
And then there are the less obvious pairings.
Blue cheeses.
Even dessert.
The combination of aromatic fruit, freshness and texture gives this unusual white plenty of possibilities.
A wine with no desire to behave
Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about Folle Odyssée is that it doesn’t try too hard to be unusual.
It simply takes a familiar grape and asks what else it can do.
Gros Manseng doesn’t have to be sweet.
White wine doesn’t have to be clear and pale.
And South-West France doesn’t have to follow the traditional rulebook.
Domaine de Beyssac “Folle Odyssée” 2023 — a biodynamic Gros Manseng, taken on a completely different journey.
So, are you ready for the adventure?
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