Faite Blanc
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2024
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roasted poultry, creamy mushroom risotto, or mature sheep's milk cheeses.
✨ Technical Specifications
Le Faîte Blanc is the crowning achievement of the Saint-Mont appellation, representing a living tribute to the ancestral traditions of Gascony. The name itself, meaning 'the summit' or 'the ridgepole,' reflects its status as Plaimont's flagship cuvée. In a unique nod to history, the final blend of Le Faîte is decided annually by a select jury of world-class sommeliers and wine writers, ensuring each vintage is a bespoke masterpiece. This wine revives the historic practice of local winemakers who buried their most precious bottles under clay in the cellar to hide and preserve them, a custom celebrated by the bottle's distinctive wooden label and hand-applied wax seal. Grown on the cool, clay-limestone slopes of the Pyrenean foothills, the grapes undergo traditional vinification with fine lees contact, resulting in a white wine of exceptional texture, mineral tension, and aromatic complexity.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1979 through the union of wine cooperatives in Plaisance, Aignan, and Saint-Mont spearheaded by André Dubosc, Plaimont is an undisputed viticultural vanguard in Gascony and the Pyrenean foothills. Spanning diverse terroirs across AOC Saint-Mont, Madiran, Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh, and Côtes de Gascogne, its vineyards are defined by variegated soils of tawny sands (sables fauves), limestone, and clay-rich molasse tempered by Atlantic and mountain currents. Renowned worldwide for its preservation of ampelographic heritage—exemplified by its private conservatory and historic ungrafted pre-phylloxera plots in Sarragachies—Plaimont has revived forgotten indigenous varieties such as Tardif, Arrufiac, and Manseng Noir. In white vinification, Plaimont champions crystalline freshness, precise reductive aromatic protection, and thoughtful lees contact, highlighting local Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng, and Colombard. Landmark cuvées include Cirque Nord, Les Cépages Préservés, and Les Vignes Retrouvées, presenting tensile minerality, bright citrus, exotic orchard fruit, and textural salinity emblematic of southwest France.
🍇 Grapes
Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng, Arrufiac