Critics reviews
A blend of 70% Syrah with Mourvèdre and Carignan, aged 12 months in barrel, the nose offers not only deep-set, ripe black fruit and copious spice and hot earth, but some garrigue notes of herb and flowers. In the mouth it caresses with a plush underpinning of really silky, chocolate-rich tannins, but the acidity is also gentle and ripe, and the fruit floods across the mid-palate with a rush of dense blackcurrant and bittersweet plum and plum skins. Beautiful stuff indeed, and such a good match for red meats, especially venison and roasted game birds perhaps.
Tom Canavan, Wine-Pages.com, Wine of the Week , 09 June 2014
About this WINE
Domaine La Linquiere
Domaine la Linquière is located in Languedoc, in St.Chinian , close to Berlou; the dramatic location providing an harmonious backdrop to the elegant wine it produces. The Cuvée Cigales is dominated by Syrah and given a generous elevage of ten month in barrique.
St-Chinian, a distinctive and delightful appellation with a spectacular backdrop adorning the foothills of the Cévennes between the larger appellations of Faugères and Minervois. It can be divided into two camps, geologically and stylistically. Surrounding the eponymous village, clay soils produce pleasing fruity wines. Further to the north, at Vieusssan and Berlou, we enter a rugged, schistous landscape at altitudes of over 200 metres.
Southern Rhône Blend
The vast majority of wines from the Southern Rhône are blends. There are 5 main black varieties, although others are used and the most famous wine of the region, Châteauneuf du Pape, can be made from as many as 13 different varieties. Grenache is the most important grape in the southern Rhône - it contributes alcohol, warmth and gentle juicy fruit and is an ideal base wine in the blend. Plantings of Syrah in the southern Rhône have risen dramatically in the last decade and it is an increasingly important component in blends. It rarely attains the heights that it does in the North but adds colour, backbone, tannins and soft ripe fruit to the blend.
The much-maligned Carignan has been on the retreat recently but is still included in many blends - the best old vines can add colour, body and spicy fruits. Cinsault is also backtracking but, if yields are restricted, can produce moderately well-coloured wines adding pleasant-light fruit to red and rosé blends. Finally, Mourvèdre, a grape from Bandol on the Mediterranean coast, has recently become an increasingly significant component of Southern Rhône blends - it often struggles to ripen fully but can add acidity, ripe spicy berry fruits and hints of tobacco to blends.
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Description
The evocatively named Chant Cigales is dominated by Syrah (Syrah 70% with 15% each of Mourvèdre and Carignan) and the wine from the highly appreciated 2010 vintage has been given a generous elevage of twelve months in barrique. The combination of the schistous soils and the Syrah grape is always aromatically fascinating, this time teasing the senses with aromas of violets, black olives and fennel.
The palate is rich and plush, the black fruits affording a generous savoury backdrop and notes of sousbois and dark chocolate completing the picture. There are firmer and more persuasive tannins than in the Tradition Cuvée and the wine has good potential to develop over the medium term. Excellent with guinea fowl, partridge or, why not, boudin noir?
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
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