Elio 1000ml, 2022

A full litre of red from the terraces of Banyuls, made without a single machine and bottled in hand-blown glass.

No tractor can work the old terraces of Banyuls, which is why Manuel di Vecchi Staraz chose them. The Florentine agronomist bought a half-abandoned terrace of old Grenache in 2006 and for years made about 1,000 bottles a year in a garage. In 2011 he and Bruno Duchêne turned the town's old co-operative into nine cellars for small growers. Sheep graze his terraces in winter, and a mule called Ullamp ploughs one parcel. Elio is Grenache with some Mourvèdre from a steep, north-facing slope in the hills above Collioure. It is crushed by foot, pressed after a week and left in a single old barrel until spring. Nothing is added before it goes into litre bottles that a local glassmaker blows by hand.