2012 Ch. de Cesseras, Minervois La Livinière

2012 Ch. de Cesseras, Minervois La Livinière

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2012 Ch. de Cesseras, Minervois La Livinière

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Description

Decanter World Wine Awards 2015 – Regional Trophy Winner -Red Languedoc-Roussillon over £15
A flagship blend from a flagship appellation, namely Minervois la Livinière, (Languedoc’s first Cru within a Cru; only 500 years behind Burgundy in this respect) Château de Cesseras is Pierre André Ournac’s pièce de résistance; a blend of 70% of Syrah with 10% each of Carignan, Grenache and Mourvèdre, aged in a combination of 40% tank and 60% barrique, a small percent of which is new.

The wine is polished, rich and hedonistic, with creamy black fruits and plenty of spicy weight. Somehow, almost miraculously, the character of the region, slightly edgy and fragrant, is harmoniously juxtaposed with an inherent velvety character, born out of the age of the vines and their privileged up-bringing.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

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Decanter
Decanter World Wine Awards 2015 – Regional Trophy Winner -Red Languedoc-Roussillon over £15
A year after the 2011 vintage of this wine took the International Trophy for Rhone varietals over £15, it now scopps another accolade. Located in the village of Cesseras in Minervois, this property has been in the Ournac family since the late 18th century, although it was only in 1986 when the family made its first wine.

Lovely garrigue nose, with notes of game, cured meat, undergrowth, red and dark fruits plus iron-like minerality. Intense, succulent, juicy and very much ready to drink, there's a floral air to the ripe fruit, and a general feeling of harmony and class. A distinguished, gastronomic act.
Decanter, Nov 2015 Read more

About this WINE

Domaine Coudoulet

Domaine Coudoulet

This domaine produces first-class wines at absurdly low prices. Brothers Jean-Yves and Pierre-André are the 6th generation of Ournacs to produce wines here. Like other growers in the area, they have progressively replanted their vineyards over the last 15 years, replacing many traditional varieties with Syrah, Chardonnay and Viognier. The vines are grown on clay-chalk soils and part of the property qualifies for the Minervois appellation where Syrah and Carignan are planted.

Their top red wine, the Château de Cesseras, La Livinière, is made from predominantly Syrah and has great depth, richness and class. Pierre André Ournac was one of the first to realise the potential of La Livinière and makes one of its very best wines. Stylistically this is a polished example, having been partly aged in new wood, but, importantly, a wine which has not lost sight of provenance and which has a real sense of place. The aromatics of herbs and thyme and the rich palate, with its notes of scorched earth and macerated plums, all betray the warm Mediterranean backdrop, evocative of Pagnol, Matisse and a spirit of leisure.

This estate is particularly renowned for the quality of its Viogniers. It is remarkable how well this grape which was traditionally grown in the Northern Rhône appellations of Condrieu and Château Grillet, adapts to the warmer growing conditions of the Languedoc, producing wines of immense charm and finesse at a fraction of the price of their Northern Rhône counterparts.

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Syrah/Shiraz

Syrah/Shiraz

A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.

It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.

South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.

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