WINE ADVOCATE

  

89 points

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009

David Schildknecht

Drink: 2009 – 2011

Cost: $27 (27)

 

The 2005 Syrah La Touge impressively mingles sweetly ripe yet juicy black fruits with a pure meatiness resembling sirloin juices. Suggestions of peat and iodine add interest to the long, rich, barely warm finish. Not only does this densely-concentrated wine – as Eden and Darnault point out – mark a contrast with the corresponding 2003, in which even higher potential alcohol was accompanied by desiccation both on the vine and in the glass, it also offers a welcome contrast with the rather hard and ungenerous showing at this juncture of so many Languedoc 2005s. Only in direct comparison with the more refined 2006 does one recognize a certain relative rusticity of tannin here. I would plan to enjoy this over the next two years.

 

 

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009

David Schildknecht

Drink: N/A

Cost: $27 (27)

 

High-toned mint and herbal essences and buddleia floral perfume mingle with scents of ripe black currant in the nose of the Maris 2006 Syrah La Touge, leading to a lush, sweetly-ripe palate, with notes of wet stone and pencil lead offering interest in the finish. This has a wonderfully silken feel, and despite its suggestion of sweetness and its (by estate standards low) 14.5% alcohol, possesses an almost “cool” fresh fruit character, with an invigoratingly tart edge.

 

 

90-91 points

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009

David Schildknecht

Drink: N/A

Cost: N/A 

 

The Maris 2007 Syrah La Touge – tasted from tank – delivers an uncommonly delicious amalgam of ripe cassis and black raspberry with refreshing and zesty suggestions of fresh lime and black tea, graced by a veritable greenhouse’s worth of herbal and floral notes. Lushly-textured and pure, this finishes with an impressive combination of rich, sweet fruit, zesty pungency, chalky mineral suggestions, and a sheer refreshment that completely belies its alcohol.

 

 

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009

David Schildknecht 91

Drink: 2009 – 2013

Cost: $51 (42)

 

The Maris 2006 Syrah Old Vines offers an effusive nose of black cherry and buddleia, a silky, rich palate, and distinct undertones of roasted meat, iodine, and wet stone, leading into an impressively long finish. While this is even riper than the corresponding La Togue, it displays some of the same sense of invigoration and sheer juicy drink-ability, unhindered by its alcohol. I suspect this will be worth following for at least another 3-4 years.

 

 

  

92-93 points

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009

David Schildknecht

Drink: N/A

Cost: N/A

 

From tank, a reductive hint of cassis leaf needed to be shaken off of the Maris 2007 Syrah Old Vine, a bottling based on the estate’s best block, surrounded by garrigue on a deep clay hillside near La Liviniere. A wine of exceptional purity, extreme black fruit ripeness, and a velvety texture emerges, girded by ultra-fine tannins and enlivened by springs of fresh berry juiciness as singular in the context of wine this ripe as is the spring that apparently literally lies beneath this vineyard. A small proportion of this cuvee is kept in tank to preserve freshness, but the harmony of oak (un-toasted at this address) and fruit is also perfectly judged, i.e. the former is scarcely noticeable as such. Cardamom, ginger, black pepper, pencil lead, and sweet floral suggestions add to the complex allure of this long-finishing beauty that deserves to be entered in a World Syrah contest. Interestingly, a single small lot of super-ripe, creamy, super-concentrated Syrah that Eden and Darnault were toying with bottling separately precisely as a sort of trophy wine left me disappointed on account of its finishing heat and faint drying.

 

 

90 points

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009 David Schildknecht

Drink: 2009 – 2012

Cost: $56 (51)

 

The Maris 2006 Grenache Old Vine suggests prunes and distilled plum in a ripe, rather spirituous nose. A hint of celery seed engenders a slightly sweet-sour cast. That said, this is impressively dense, rich raw material, a virtual liqueur de Grenache that does not entirely lack a sense of palate freshness. A very slightly dry spot in the finish – rather than heat – seems to be the price paid by this wine for its roughly 16.5% alcohol. I would be inclined to serve it in appropriate contexts (perhaps after rather than with the meal) over the next 2-3 years but don’t bet on long-term harmony.

 

 

 

91-92 points

Minervois, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Wine Advocate # 183 - Jun 2009

David Schildknecht

Drink: N/A

Cost: N/A

 

From tank, the Maris 2007 Grenache Old Vine smells remarkably like some amalgam of late-harvested Grenache and Sauvignon, possessing high-toned suggestions of herbal elixir, mint candy, black tea, and of over-ripe honeydew melon mingled with black raspberry and strawberry preserves and distillate. The nose is so invigorating and by itself suggests such lift, that one can scarcely imagine the wine turning heavy on the palate regardless of its alcohol, and one is not in the least disappointed: this exhibits uncanny balance of sheer viscosity and ripeness with vivacity and invigoration. There is an almost honeyed character here and a sumptuous, unctuous texture. This will be bottled ahead of the corresponding Syrah, indeed it will have been bottled by the time you read this.