WTN: 8 wines from the south of France

The DWEEBS met last night at Rob's to taste some red wines from the Languedoc. Fred brought a bonus bottle of Languedoc sparkling wine, the NV Esprit du Sud Blanquette de Limoux Brut. Pleasant, light, fruity apple flavors. B-

The rest of the wines were blind:

Wine #1 pretty ripe, fleshy, good CdR style wine. 2007 Lancyre " La Coste d'Aleyrac" (Pic St. Loup). B

Wine #2
Also ripe, a little more slick, some light oak. Maybe most popular of night for group. 2006 Domaine de Nizas (Coteaux du Languedoc) B/B-

Wine #3
Overripe, heat, VA, pruney. I really don't care for this. Rob said he used to like, but that this hasn't aged well. 2003 Ch. de Serame (Minervois) C-

Wine #4 Good, a little heavy on the kirsch, but overall well balanced, and probably my favorite of the evening. 2007 Leon Barral Faugeres B/B+

Wine #5 Fairly hefty, little edge of oak, blacker fruits and animal notes than say Mouvedre to me, but it's not (Syrah/Grenache). 2007 Ch. de Lancyre Pic St-Loup Vieilles Vignes B

Wine #6 My wine, the 2008 Iche Les Heretiques (VdP d'Herault). I liked- very typical Les Heretiques- round warm fruit, a little spice, some herbs. Others liked less. B

Wine #7 Big, fleshy, quirky purple color. Red fruit, spice, a bit too fat, a tad short. 2008 Tabatau St. Chinian. B-

Good group of guys, easy walk home.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. 

Great to see any notes on S France, especially Lancyre. Happy Xmas Dale and a high five for the doggie!

Wine #4 Good, a little heavy on the kirsch, but overall well balanced, and probably my favorite of the evening. 2007 Leon Barral Faugeres B/B+. 

Barral makes nice wines that I never get around to drinking very often. This one was tempting me at Chambers recently, but I tried to focus on other stuff. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, but when B/B+ is your favorite of the evening I guess it wasn't a stellar selection. Which is fine, they can't all be stellar.

Dale, interesting that there are no As here. That corresponds very much to my perception of Languedoc. Solidly enjoyable wines often with terroir character and decent QPR to boot but very rarely with real distinction. Some Mas Jullien and perhaps Aupilhac get there IMO and, at Faugères, Alquier produces wine with unusual refinement for the area though "informed" opinion tends to prefer Barral whose wines have rarely come my way.

Thanks for the report Dale. I openly admit to being a Lancyre slut, but also admit that I don't drink them so much anymore. The explanation can be found in their price hikes of recent years. Of their reds, I particularly like their Grande Cuvee, and also like the old vines. I must say that I haven't had the lesser wines from Lancyre. My favorites from Lancyre are the rosé and the rousanne, though the rousanne has already reached it apex in what I will pay for it. My loss though I guess. The Lancyre rosé is IMO one of the best rosés from anywhere on the globe.

Alquier produces wine with unusual refinement for the area though "informed" opinion tends to prefer Barral whose wines have rarely come my way.

Doesn't Alquier use a lot of cinsault and carignan? They tend to add more 'freshness' to wines. Which I like. But in my limited interactions I've found his wines a bit rustic, hard (which also happens with c & c) and for some reason they never spoke to me. Admittedly, this is based on a handful of wines. Barral is richer, but for some reason the 'soul' was more apparent to me.

Alquier produces wine with unusual refinement for the area though "informed" opinion tends to prefer Barral whose wines have rarely come my way.

Doesn't Alquier use a lot of cinsault and carignan? They tend to add more 'freshness' to wines. Which I like. But in my limited interactions I've found his wines a bit rustic, hard (which also happens with c & c) and for some reason they never spoke to me. Admittedly, this is based on a handful of wines. Barral is richer, but for some reason the 'soul' was more apparent to me.

Alquier's wines need time; I didn't particularly enjoy his young efforts at a recent tasting. However his top cuvées, Maison Jaune and Bastides, from 2001 are now delicious and "rustic" is the last descriptor which I would apply to them. The former is 70% Syrah, 20% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre and the latter 60% Syrah, 35% Grenache and 5% Mourvèdre. I find the Syrah character quite marked with a freshness and elegance which is much closer to Côte Rôtie than with most warm climate Syrah.

Barral is a big gap in my Languedoc experience which I need to fill.

Alquier's wines need time; I didn't particularly enjoy his young efforts at a recent tasting. However his top cuvées, Maison Jaune and Bastides, from 2001 are now delicious and "rustic" is the last descriptor which I would apply to them. The former is 70% Syrah, 20% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre and the latter 60% Syrah, 35% Grenache and 5% Mourvèdre. I find the Syrah character quite marked with a freshness and elegance which is much closer to Côte Rôtie than with most warm climate Syrah..

Ok, fair enough. I don't remember which cuvees I had. Although they did have anywhere from 10-20 years of age. (Not sure if they were late releases or what, but The Winery shop in London had a remarkable selection of aged and affordable Alquier when I was living there in 05-06-07).

Alquier's wines need time; I didn't particularly enjoy his young efforts at a recent tasting. However his top cuvées, Maison Jaune and Bastides, from 2001 are now delicious and "rustic" is the last descriptor which I would apply to them. The former is 70% Syrah, 20% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre and the latter 60% Syrah, 35% Grenache and 5% Mourvèdre. I find the Syrah character quite marked with a freshness and elegance which is much closer to Côte Rôtie than with most warm climate Syrah..

Ok, fair enough. I don't remember which cuvees I had. Although they did have anywhere from 10-20 years of age. (Not sure if they were late releases or what, but The Winery shop in London had a remarkable selection of aged and affordable Alquier when I was living there in 05-06-07).

BTW there are two Alquiers , Jean-Michel and Gilbert. Mine come from Jean-Michel.

BTW there are two Alquiers , Jean-Michel and Gilbert. Mine come from Jean-Michel.

Actually, now that you mention it, I just checked online and I was confusing Alquier for Vaquer, who has several 100% carignan cuvees from Roussillon. Nevermind!

I'm learning a lot here! Tim, I tend to agree that I find some good wines but very seldom compelling, but that is probably related to my preferences (I tend to prefer Northern Rhone to Southern, for instance)

Wine #5 Fairly hefty, little edge of oak, blacker fruits and animal notes than say Mouvedre to me, but it's not (Syrah/Grenache). 2007 Ch. de Lancyre Pic St-Loup Vieilles Vignes B

I passed on this `07 but have just picked up some recently arrived `08 VV. A staff member at DeVines thought decant for a couple of hours, then enjoy.