The more you learn about wine, the more you realize how many incredible treasures can be found throughout southern France. I think of great Provençal producers like Domaine de Trévallon, Pibarnon, and Château Simone; Mas Jullien in the Terraces du Larzac; and Mas de Daumas-Gassac in the Hérault (to name a few). Old vines, ample sunshine, and the heady, herbal scents of
garrigue are all constants in this part of the world, and so is value: The amount of wine you get for the money, often from organically farmed, heirloom vines, is unrivaled anywhere in the world. Case in point is today’s wine, called “Édition,” from the gorgeous Domaine la Grange in the Hérault.
Situated east of Faugères in the newly established Pézenas AOC, la Grange is surrounded by pristine nature at the edge of the Cévennes national park, whose cool mountain breezes help mitigate the Mediterranean heat and create wines of balance. The second you stick your nose in a glass of this Syrah-Grenache blend, it’s like a throwback to the great, classic expressions of Châteauneuf before so many of those wines became overblown. Red and black fruit complexities and spicy
garrigue call to mind the greatest expressions of Bandol, while meaty notes complemented by sandalwood, olive, and cracked pepper harken to the Northern Rhône. Peaking now with five years of age, and over-delivering in spades for $26, this is an absolute blockbuster.
One of our importers discovered Domaine la Grange on a tip from Jean-Marc Lafage, a renowned southern French consultant who, on any given day, can be found trekking vineyards a mile or so from the Mediterranean, or scaling steeper slopes in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Lafage’s young winemaker, Thomas Reynaud, had moved on to take the reins at la Grange, where he has won consistent accolades for the estate’s wines, especially those from their “Castalides” line—so named for the water nymphs that “guard” the property’s two wells. Wines in the Castalides series are considered the estate’s top bottlings, sourced from their oldest and best-positioned vineyards.
To the casual passerby, the lands surrounding La Grange are not particularly dramatic—but what lies just below the surface is where all the magic happens. The geologic forces of slow-moving glaciers and centuries of erosion that have conspired to create a patchwork of deep gravel deposits are the defining characteristics, which earned Pézenas cru status.
Thick roots of the gnarly bush-trained Grenache and Syrah vines at La Grange snake their way through soils that have an alluvial limestone and schist makeup, which Reynaud was used to working with at Lafage. Meanwhile, above ground, warm, salty Mediterranean sea breezes gather a collection of aromatic rosemary and thyme phenols over a 20-mile journey before whipping through the canopies at La Grange, allowing glimmers of sunlight to slowly and gently ripen grapes while leaving microscopic imprints of the surrounding terroir on the skins. The warm summers here imbue the wines with a velvety, rich texture, marked by a decidedly spicy, wild-herb edge to the ripe fruit.
The 2014 “Édition” is a Syrah-dominant cuvée balanced by Grenache. The wine just erupts with the classic, deep, savory maturing aromatics that at five years of age are just starting to evolve. Moving from a nearly opaque, garnet red core with purple highlights to a slight garnet hue emerging at the rim, the nose is full of cassis and confit blueberries and blackberries and secondary notes of wild herbs against a vivid backdrop of that kind of garrigue-meets-fresh-florals in wild rose and violet accents. Earth tones of damp, crushed rocks and faint accents of mushroom, cured meat, pepper, and olives complete the whole story of this wine. Full-bodied on the palate with a mouth-coating richness that will please lovers of California reds like those from Napa, Santa Barbara, and Paso Robles, with lovely acidity that brings tension to the wine, underscored by deep rocky minerality that drives the long finish of wild berries, olives, and delicate exotic spices. Practice your best southern French cassoulet recipe, and layer at least six bottles in your cellar so that when you host a party of your close friends, they’ll swoon and be grateful for this over-delivering Mediterranean-kissed jewel that keeps flowing.
