Vin de Pays de l'Hérault Red Rhone Blend

An interesting wine - I haven’t had many from the Languedoc region. A blend of 40% Syrah, 40% Mourvèdre, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Counoise. It is the presence of Counoise in the blend that results in this wine being labeled as a Vin de Pays as opposed to AOC Coteaux du Languedoc. Now to the wine itself - some barnyard, animale also gravel and violets. A lot going on. This Languedoc wine was interesting and new. If tasted blind I would have said Southern Rhone. More earthy and savoury than fruit driven on the medium weight palate. Perfect balance with the oak influence totally integrated. One of the 1001 Wines and a wine I would be happy to try again in the future. Barb loved it.

Fresh coffee grounds, dried leather, blueberry jam, fig, plum, fresh soil, black pepper.

White before red. Just an incredible array of aroma and flavors with every sip. Cooked black plum, dried black cherry, dried rose petals, dust, cracked pepper, cedar, wood smoke, fur, olive, leather, cocoa powder, garrigue, tar, hot iron, black tea. Everything about screams rustic but the elegance of tannin and lengthy finesse counter everything peasant about it. More impressive on day 2 is the seamless nature of it, harmonious from front to back, gaining more an overall savory and meaty profile. The shiitake, cured meat, hoisin, talcum and leather really starting to unfold. I think this could be beautiful in 5-8 years, but I love the fruit component at this moment. Father’s day treats this weekend with double GDPs 😻

So big, so smooth, so deep, such a sense of time... need dark chocolate now.
By the way this was paired with a big bloody cut of sirloin, dead simple roasted potatoes and some fiddleheads. Was perfect!

Power and finesse. Love this wine with BBQ

Stanley had this 5 years ago

Plenty dark in the glass with zero bricking. Soft plum, cassis, pipe tobacco and herbal...very similar to a ripe Bordeaux from the mid ‘00s on the nose. The palate has significant amounts of black cherry, blackberry pie, leather, and even some bay leaf. Plenty of tannin and acidity. For those who are waffling on when to open, this is very good now, but I’m hard pressed to say this is way over the hill. Absolutely brilliant right now. Shout out to the man @Martin G Rivard for hooking this up! Just a killer Rhône and I can’t wait to open my ‘12!

This is stupidly complex. Not cheap but it has so much style and personality. Amazing wine. Aromas of wet tobacco, herbs and bright fruit. The young vintages taste well aged and the old vintages taste young. This is dreamy

2012. Drinking amazingly well presently but has so much more to say. Heady aromatics of wet earth and meat flowers. Sublimely balanced.

On the nose, white pepper hits first. Then candied fruits and smoke unfurl.
On the palette, the tannins are a touch green, which is what I would expect from a Rhone of this age. The mouthfeel is plush and complemented with linze torte and barrel toast. Acidity is perfect. The components need to come together. This should hit 93 pts 3 years from now. Judging by the scores, mine is an outlier, which I attribute to my idiosyncratic taste.

A wonderful gift from my good friend @Martin G Rivard. Thank you so much.