Vin de Pays de l'Hérault Red Rhone Blend

Delicious, but still such a baby.

Spotted on a wine list for well below retail—in Las Vegas of all places! Had to pull the trigger and it didn’t disappoint. No detailed notes but it was gorgeous with tons of complexity and character. Lucky find in a sea of overpriced trophy cabs

It’s all about the 2016….. last vintage by the winemaker himself…😔

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!