Score: 95/100
This Languedoc Red wine by Clos des augustins is a blend made from low-yielding vineyards of Syrah (95%) and Grenache.
During harvest, the ripest grapes are directly selected in situ on the vineyard. Winemaking consists of a cold maceration at low temperatures over a few days before fermentation after which follows a soft extraction of tannins to respect the aromas.
After fermentation, the wine was transferred into new French oak barrels for 18 months of aging.
The winery’s consulting winemaker is Pascal CHATONNET.
For more perspective on this wine check the next vintage with 2014 Clos des Augustins l’Ainé.
Tasting Notes
This Languedoc red comes a pretty dark red color. This is a young wine, and it is black to the core, with very dark purple hues to the rim, you can hardly see through at all. Not your ridiculously inked new world wine, but yes, there is a wealth of dark matter in here.
The nose, after a solid 2 hours of decanting, confirms the aromatic concentration in this Pic Saint Loup wine seems to be simply outstanding!
The nose feels dark, ripe, deep, and intense.
Where do we start?
- Dark because it’s filled with notes of toasted cocoa, coffee, deep vanilla, but also clove and black forest cake: all of which are very dark ingredients and foods.
- Ripe because there is a wealth of cherry liqueur, dark blackberry and prune tones to it.
- Deep because the torrefaction notes combine with the fruity ones and the spices to form an intriguing aromatic profile that you don’t seem to be able to fully get your head around at this stage. Remember, this is a rather young wine and that’s probably why!
- Intense because even though you can sense that this baby of a wine is clearly not giving its full potential now in its young age, it is still utterly captivating to smell and you can clearly sense the great concentration of aromas it holds in its beating heart.
Put the wine in your mouth, and it strikes with its voluptuous mouth-filling velvety volume (if that ever made any sense). The body is rich yet sustained by characterful acidity.
It is actually hard to describe, being so full-on, intense and multi-facetted.
Tannins are dense, and as described: velvety. They’re overall granulous and little rough and drying, but there are also very smooth and silky ones in there rounding up the sensation.
Combined with a solid yet relatively smooth acidity, those powerful tannins make for a grippy sensation that is yet bursting with fresh fruit flavors.
The crispy acidity amplifies the fresh red berry note, and turn the peppery, almost chilly-like flavors into a truly lifted experience.
Add some deep oaky vanilla, clove and nutmeg, and almost earthy notes, and you end up with an outstanding spectrum of deep and complex flavors.
If you consider this is just a young baby of a wine, conclusions suggest this has a incredible potential to become a stunner of a wine give it 5 to 10 years at least.
Hard to fully get your head around it, but it has so much built-in quality depth, utter concentration and spiciness that this Pic Saint Loup is a truly outstanding tasting experience.
Enjoy ?
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