2012 Domaine Le Roc Des Anges Segna de Cor

Newly-bottled when I last tasted it in spring, Gallet’s 2012 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Segna de Cor – as usual, half Grenache with Carignan and Syrah, all from vines under 40 years old – is scented with strawberry preserves but reveals a mid-palate generously juicy if still very ripe and a bit jammy, tinged with coffee and licorice. For now at least, it finishes with some rather gum-numbing tannin, which will hopefully have dissipated to at least some extent after this wine has put time between itself and its bottling date. I would tentatively envision drinking it by 2016. Marjorie Gallet and her “Rock of Angels” estate – for much more about the extent and evolution of which, consult my previous reports – continue to develop a distinctively attractive style reflecting an expanded range of bottlings in both red and white wines. (And don’t miss the fortified Maurys that she and husband Stephane are rendering under the name Les Terres de Fagayra, reviewed separately in this report.) Gallet also presented me this year with her first essay in rancio sec – a 2006; two successors are in barrel – but I didn’t find the magic of that genre had been captured, and this wine’s finish was pronouncedly bitter. In an encouraging example of investment in the future of these once-neglected and seldom young vines, the Gallets have recently planted massale selections of Carignan, Grenache Gris, and even Carignan Gris in some north-facing slopes on the way up from Montner to Forca Real, for which they often had to break rock by hand. Roughly half of Gallet’s organically-tended vineyards are now being plowed by horse; and the couple – with in her case an equestrian background – are now understudying this art with one of the few remaining local practitioners (active in that capacity since age 14) and planning to invest in two plow-horses of their own, once there is room to house them in a new winery that is on the drawing board, to be built on the road from Latour-de-France to Montner. (The Gallets’ cellar facilities in the center of Montner are strained to accommodate their crush and barrels.) Gallet believes that plowing is critical to getting the most out of the fine-grained – as she aptly puts it, “couscous-like” – microbial-rich soils she has worked so hard for the last eight years to build in sites most of which were heavily treated with pesticides and herbicides before she acquired them. Above, she deems plowing critical to forcing vine roots to grow straight and deep, which in her estimation is a prerequisite for optimal canopy and, eventually, ripeness and diversity of flavors without excessive alcohol. In both white and red, Gallet finds her 2012 more concentrated yet not necessarily less-fine (ultimately, i.e. with time) than her 2011s; and her penchant for early-harvest meant that she began picking whites already in early August, with results that I had not imagined possible in this year. “With the temperatures we can experience in August,” she explains, “even just one more day of heat can be a disaster to balance, and we always focus on balance and vibrance.” That said, despite the differences in weather and much larger crop, the 2011s were picked only a little later and at comparable levels of potential alcohol. “They’re more relaxed than usual,” says Gallet of those 2011s, adding that “even the reds could be enjoyed right after fermentation, and they have never shut down.” To the extent that barrels are utilized in Roc des Anges wines of either color, these represent older barriques and to a greater extent demi-muids and larger formats, especially 600-liter barrels from Stockinger and some lightly-used Rousseau foudres purchased from Bruno Clair’s Burgundy domaine. Gallet has come to the conclusion that – within reason, naturally – “for wines from schist, the sooner they are confined in the bottle the better it is for preserving purity, freshness, and tension” and reds are going into bottle now at 7-9 months. “If the wine is left to mature in the cellar over the summer,” she continues, “even with air conditioning we found that it gets this lightly burnt character and we don’t like that. Perhaps when we have our new winery and underground cellar we’ll try for some longer elevage.” Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also a Thomas Calder Selections Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29 with various importers, including Potomac Selections, Inc., Landover MD; tel. (301) 583-8844