Alcohol: 13.5%
Grape(s): 40% Grenache Noir, 30% Carignan, 30% Syrah
Location: Cotes Catalanes, Languedoc, France
Tasting Notes: In the glass, the wine's dark purple flashes magenta at the edge. Aromatically, ripe blackberries, griotte cherries, dried plums, and dark chocolate give way to dark cocoa and pine needles as the wine evolves in the glass. The taste is warm, with a beautifully textured core of dark fruit framed by silky tannins and a stimulating mineral lift.
Food Pairing: Vibrant and straightforward, it is a great partner for rich dishes, BBQ, aperitif with friends, etc.
Notes: Mostly destemmed, though a whole bunch is used and varies on the vintage, but not usually more than 10%. Ambient yeast fermentation with pieds de cuve in closed concrete tanks for 7 days, then pressed and racked back to the tank to finish fermentation. No temperature control. There are no punching down or pump-overs. Aged in tank for approximately ten months. No fining or light filtration. Total sulfur at bottling 30 to 50 ppm. (good amounts, not too much, but thankfully not too little) Held for several months in a bottle before release.
The Domain: When Marjorie Gallet established her Domaine Le Roc des Anges in 2001, she was a twenty-three-year-old agricultural engineering graduate of Montpellier SupAgro (where she met her enologist husband, Stéphane), and had just completed an internship with Gérard Gauby, then the most famous producer in the Roussillon. But she hadn’t been born in a family with vines, so her story is one of fresh eyes on a treasure taken for granted and abandoned by others, and of her unlimited capacity for hard work. In 2008, Marjorie was joined by her husband Stéphane, who had spent the previous ten years making wine at Domaine du Mas Amiel in nearby Maury. Today their estate is certified Biodynamic, with most of the treatments, including Maria Thun compost in autumn and Préparation 500 in the spring, applied with the aid of a horse, and despite the critical acclaim (Parker, Tanzer, Decanter), Marjorie and Stéphane continue to work 14 hour days (and still carve out as much time as they can for their two young sons Nathan and Arthur).
