Clos Ste. Magdeleine Cassis Bel-Arme 2019

Few vineyards in France sit like those of Clos Sainte Magdeleine: on a private cape beneath the limestone cliffs of Cassis, terraces stepping down toward the Mediterranean, farmed by the Sack-Zafiropulos family for four generations and certified organic. Bel-Arme is a single hectare planted in the early 1960s on clay and limestone, its old Marsanne vines clinging to the rock directly above the water. In 2019 that Marsanne, 65 percent of the blend, is joined by Clairette, Ugni Blanc, and a touch of Bourboulenc, then aged at length on the lees in concrete eggs. Crisp stone fruit rides a subtly creamy texture before a dry finish of chalk and sea salt. Cassis blanc from the appellation's most breathtaking address.