Nicolas Bastin (R), earlier this month during a visit to Patrick Desplats

Pulling up chez Baptiste Cousin, the first salon of many for me last weekend around the Loire, a guy in a funny rainbow hat and with a huge smile kindly said hello to my friend ZB and I as we walked in. It turns out it was Nicolas Bastin, a winemaker in the, for lack of a better term, up and coming Gaillac region, who happened to be pouring his wines that night. Bastin’s bottles contained perhaps the most psychedelic juices that I tasted that evening, no small feat considering the company present; Tom of l’Absurde Genie des Fleurs, J-M Dreyer, Etienne Thiebaud, Morgane Turlier, and many more stalwarts of the natural wine universe.

Tasting with Nicolas, who was casually sipping out of what appeared to be a ram’s horn, I was immediately taken aback by these hard to place in any kind of context wines. All extreme in a sense, but all comforting, warming—oxygen, VA, fruit all harmonzing and swirling around both in my glass and in my brain. Throughout the weekend I kept running into Nicolas, and most memorably during an epic visit to Patrick Desplats’ qvevri garden in Saint Lambert du-Lattay. Nicolas, originally from the Pyrenees, and a former cow farmer and cheese maker in the Gard, fell into making wine in the Gaillac after a chance encounter with Philippe Jambon, soon discovering a property that he now farms and vinifies on. Bastin has both an incredibly warm demeanor and a naturally infectious energy, and these qualities are felt in the wines—bottles so completely idiosyncratic that challenge even the most seasoned drinkers expectations of what natural wine can be. 



Sauvageon 2016
Sauvignon Blanc
$48





De Terres 2 Citrouilles 2017
Merlot
$53





Playa 2020
Syrah / Brocol
$42





Des Equilibres 2016
Brocol / Duras / Syrah
$48





Le Grand H 2021
Grenache
$43