2008 Minervois La Ciaude

Gros and Tollot's 2008 Minervois La Ciaude projects impressive depth of fruit; interactive, high-toned complexity of floral, mineral, and savory carnal nuances; along with sheer energy doubtless - as Gros suggests - testifying to the efficacy of both 104-year-old Carignan vines as well as to high active lime and water retention in these soil. If the corresponding Fontanilles evoked meat marrow and shrimp shell reduction, this Ciaude suggests lobster shell reduction in its sense of sweet, subtly saline, and hauntingly mineral savor. I suspect that it will be worth following for a decade of not longer, but in lieu of any track record that can only be taken as an intuitive guess. Anne Gros of the eponymous Vosne-Romanee domaine and her partner Jean-Paul Tollot (of Domaine Tollot-Beaut) happened on the site of their new estate not long after they conceived the possibility of working vineyards in the South, and Anne says that as soon as she grasped the diversity of soils and glimpsed the several substantial parcels on offer around tiny Cazelles - 14 hectares at the high, northern edge of appellation Minervois just before it gives way to Saint-Chinian (at the same elevation as Vosne-Romanee's crus), where nights are generally cool even in mid-summer - she was smitten. Gros and Tollot have since taken to the task of preserving the ancient vines and vineyard ecosystems in this neighborhood with born-again zeal. The Gros-Tollot family of four now lives and works here most weekends, although during the protracted picking of these sites so dramatically different in soil, exposure, and cepage - a harvest which overlaps that of the Cote d'Or - they can literally be pulled in two directions. Given this couple's background and well-known talents, it comes as no surprise to learn that they are rendering wines unlike any others in Minervois, or indeed anywhere else in the Languedoc. Their aims are inter alia to showcase each of their principle grape varieties - very much including unjustly-slighted Cinsault and Carignan; each of their soil types - sandstone and iron-rich chalk-clay; and elegance, levity, and refinement, vinous virtues that, yes, might well be dubbed Burgundian. The prices of top cuvees emanating from Gros and Tollot's new, extremely sophisticated facility (much of its equipment mirroring that at Domaine Anne Gros in Vosne) also set them apart from all but a handful of Languedoc collections, in which respect Gros openly expresses her disappointment that trade resistance has forced her to lower her sights a bit, quite possibly beneath price levels that will be sustainable long-term given the low yields and innovative, labor-and capital-intensive viticultural efforts that characterize the Gros-Tollot regimen. (Example: there are three different tractors to accommodate the widths of rows and method of vine-training in different parcels.) One might argue that Gros was naive about consumers' expectations of Minervois vis-a-vis famous-name Burgundy. But it is the trade and consumers who ultimately must shed prejudice and recognize good value, unique personalities, and exciting innovations in wine when they taste them - otherwise the market will dictate that quality like that of these wines no longer issues from the Languedoc, notwithstanding their eloquent testimony to what is possible. The Gros-Tollot La 50/50 represents tank-vinified fruits of old vines Carignan and Cinsault with those of some younger Grenache. Les Fontanilles is from a north- and west-facing, densely garrigue-rimmed bowl of predominantly ultra-friable sandstone but at places stony calcaire, planted with Grenache (in the majority), Cinsault, Syrah, and centenarian Carignan, fruits of the latter two sorts being matured in aged barriques. From south-facing but water-retentive limestone and all four cepages - though Syrah is dominant - La Ciaude is raised entirely in barrel; as is Les Carretals, from largely centenarian, dominantly Carignan vines in a near-clos whose lime-, iron-, and clay-rich soil reminds Gros of her parcel of Richebourg - except that this site is extraordinarily rocky by any standards whatsoever. After three years of rigorous de-budding, notes Gros, her younger vines seem now to have begun regulating themselves and producing a smaller, balanced crop. Incidentally, the inaugural 2008 collection here gained in charm and complexity during the nearly 12 month interval between the two occasions when I tasted it. Whereas the 2009s - harvested on average two weeks later than the 2008s and bottled last November - kicked into malo directly out of their primary fermentations, malo-lactic transformation of the 2010s was - in typically Burgundian fashion - delayed until spring, so my notes on wines of that vintage encompass the occasional lot with residual malic acid or significant residual CO2. I did however deem my note on one wine representative enough to be worth publishing as a foretaste of what is to come. Although there was no drought stress or desiccation here in 2010, Gros reports that she and Tollot were nonetheless amazed on pressing to realize how low was the juice-to-skin ratio as well as the pH, all of which one tastes as vibrant concentration, not to mention sees in wines whose deep colors belie their sense of levity and elegance. Importers include United Estates Wine Imports (Connie and Patrick Allen Selections) Worthington, OH; tel. (614) 543 1427 and North Berkeley Wine Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (800) 266-6585