Les Hautes Terres, Cremant De Limoux 'Josephine', NV

Located in the Aude valley, on the very edge of Languedoc, a remarkably beautiful place filled with ancient stories. Geneviève and Gilles live and work at the very top of a 600m summit overlooking land that was once occupied by the armies of Charlemagne. Their home and cellar comes from Gilles's grandfather, atop a rocky cliff called d'amour dur, or tough love. Where the wildnerness surrounding certainly grounds the dur aspect of this place, Gilles and Geneviève are all love. For 20 years they've been slowly building the domain which now includes a bottling and riddling facility 10 minutes away from the house. From here they help out a lot of smaller winemakers, offering equipment and expertise. They know the land well and take a lot of pride in their viticultural map of the place. Each little divot in the pockmarked landscape has its issues, but their wines have turned these idiosyncracies into complexity and character.