This was a tasting born of a coincidence – a couple of us tasted some Minervois reds close together, so the idea of a Minervois tasting was born. As it turns out, there are about 4 Minervois wines coming into Australia, so the rules relaxed a little bit to be a broader exploration of southern France. And we started with something from much further south than that…! brief impressions only.
96 Yalumba Signature: Barossa, Cabernet Shiraz blend. Fruity, young, and quite tasty.
05 Chateau du Cedre Heritage: Cahors. Savory and a bit stinky at first. Black fruits, and seems to be dirty in some way. I guess that would be terroir then.
05 Domaine St Nicolas Fiefs Vendeens: Brem. Where the fsck is Brem?? A pinot noir cabernet franc blend. Dusty slightly volatile red berries and some green pea, this comes across as underripe and overripe at the same time. Ladies and gentlemen, a fine example of why Pinot Cabernet blends are not common.
06 Mas Daumas de Gassac: Languedoc, but loses the right to use the appellation name because the grapes in this aren’t all permitted varieties. Its toit as a toiger, taking hours to show anything. A couple of us wonder if this is OK, as it doesn’t live up to its “Haut Brion of the south” marketing tag. Its slightly varietal, with the pinot noir, tannat, nebbiolo, malbec, etc fruit salad blend component showing over the Cabernet .
08 Gros Tollot la Ciaude: Minervois. The mouvedre hard edges show on this, but nonetheless it is wine of the tasting by a margin. Black fruits and jam, lovely fruit and not overblown.
04 Domaine de la Mordoree Cuvee la Reine Bois: Lirac. This is a wine I know, and it has softened considerably over the last few years. Musky slightly liqueured cherries. Some wood tar olives licorice black cherry.
All in all this was a bit of an exposition of warm climate styles. I’ve started to shy away from warm climates, but this rage of wines were instructive – its possible to make attractive wines in hot areas, with the right material and sensitive winemaking. We all knew that, but its always more convincing to see it (well, taste it) first hand.
Probably time for a revisit of some of the newer Barossa and McLaren vale labels to see how many of them are handling their production with similar sensitivity and stepping back from the jammy cherry ripe chocolate milkshake monsters of old.
Cheers
Andrew
The vineyards this comes from are listed as being planted to Grenache 55%, Clairette 20%, Bourboulenc 10%, Roussanne 10%, Picpoul 5%. Perhaps the Grenache is Grenache Blanc, as there is no pinkish tinge to this at all – it’s the ubiquitous pale straw that a lot of wines are at three years of age. No hints here of the exotic blend.
If you’re used to a “meat and potatoes” diet of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and a dash of Riesling this is going to send you sideways as:
The honeysuckle hit on the nose is the hint it might be a Rhone white – a lot of Australian marsanne smells like a miniature version of this. It’s a joyful spring garden full of fruit and flowering things - lavender, feijoa, lemon rind, white flowers, limes and has a distinct kiwifruit smell. Texturally full and viscous, with its 14% alcohol helping out here, there’s also a good rip of acid to keep things nicely in balance. Lemon pith and limoncello, waxy persimmon, orange rind, wattleseed, more kiwifruit and lime cordial.
Sick of Chardonnay? it is about Seventy bucks, but if you’re in that price range, give this a look - you wont regret it.