2011 Cuvée des Oliviers, Massamier, Red Mignarde, VDP Coteaux des Peyriac
Critics reviews
David Williams, The Observer, October 2012
The Wine Gang , October 2012
About this WINE
VDP des Coteaux de Peyriac
VDP des Côteaux de Peyriac is a well-known zonal designation in the East of the Aude department, located around the fine old city of Narbonne and producing some interesting and well-made wines.
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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Description
Perennial favourite at BBR and, it should be said, several of its most prestigious restaurant customers, Franz Venes’ Cuvée des Oliviers is a blend of 30% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 30% Carignan, 20% Cinsault, 10% Syrah and 10% Grenache.
It is juicy but with a Southern French concentration, manifested by hints of herbs, liquorice and spice adorning a bedrock of ripe fruit, of both red and black complexion. The 2011 is every bit as good as the acclaimed 2010 and made in a similar linear style, with a shade more restraint than the overtly fruity 2009 and 2007, and none the poorer for that…… Chapeau, Frantz!
(Simon Field Mw, BBR Buyer)
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