MIPTC #2 - Domaine Clavel Les Garrigues 2018

Happy Friday, y'all! Welcome to the second edition of May It Please The Cork, a punny and laid-back wine newsletter for lawyers and legal professionals who enjoy the grapy stuff.

This week, we are looking at a fine example of one of my favorite value wine regions in France: Languedoc-Roussillon.

Here's what the place looks like on the map for those less familiar (yes, being a wine geek also means getting into cartography - there is literally no end to our dorkiness)

(Map credit: Wikipedia)

So we're basically in an area spanning the Mediterranean coastline from the French border with Spain to the region of Provence. This is also the biggest wine producing region in the world, and accounts on its own for a full third of France's wine production.

And despite those impressive stats, odds are you've never heard of it and/or bought wine from the place. Strange, isn't it?

This might be a marketing and/or a distribution issue - I don't know enough to tell. Still, I can tell it's a shame: there's a whole lot of beautiful wines from the region that we don't drink enough of. The styles are varied but also spicy and floral. From bold, concentrated and chewable to elegantly chiselled and pretty, you can surely find what you like in this great region.

You'll notice I did say "floral". You're perhaps not used to finding floral aromas in wine - that's OK - they're faint and less in your face for sure. Still, this is a great region to try and identify them.

In fact, the name "Garrigues" refers to a kind of vegetation that is very characteristic of this region of France. If you've ever been, odds are you remember how it smells. These and lavender often make their way into Languedoc wines.

OK, now to the fun stuff.

The Skinny

• From: Languedoc

• Varietals: Syrah 50 %, Grenache 25 %, Mourvèdre 25 % (a very typical blend in the Rhone region just North we wine folks abbreviate to "GSM")

• Price: $22,65 CAD

• Feature: Organic wine

Tasting Notes

Visually, you can immediately tell this is dense, inky stuff. Syrah, the dominant varietal in this blend, is known for making very deep purple (smooooke on the waaaaater) wines, so this was to be expected.

On the nose, we get blueberries, blackberries, olive tapenade, lavender, cedar, and hot spices. This is complex and dense with a lot going on - so much in fact that things get a bit blurred/congested. Though this is a potent hitter at 15& ABV, you don't feel it as much as you would think due to all that is in there. You might notice after your first full glass, though. Hip!

On the palate, this is once again dense and weighty, with a very chewy mouthfeel. More fruit forward on the palate than on the nose, with a laudable balance of tongue-clicking acidity and tight, grippy tannins. Keeping this together was definitely a hard feat, so kudos to the winemaker. Still, it is hard to drink more than 2-3 glasses of this stuff due to its sheer potency (and alcohol!).

Cutting To The Chase: Does It Please The Cork?

Overall, I would have liked the winemaker to go a little less bold and a bit more graceful/understated, but this is still a solid choice for those who like heavy-hitting wines for sure. Great value at 23$ that would also most likely age quite well. It's all a matter of taste, but this is the kind of wine I would have gone nuts for 10 years ago, but that has kind of lost favour with me lately. Nothing personal!

Cork Score: 3/5*

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*Here's the lowdown on the scores, by the way. Essentially, I don't believe in 100-point scales for things as subjective as wine. Simply put, I just don't think one can credibly justify a 1% or even a 10% increment between two wines. I therefore choose to go a bit more basic. Here's how I break it down:

• 1/5: Seriously faulty, terrible, undrinkable;

• 2/5: Flawed and/or of bad quality. This is the type of stuff you should probably cook with and not drink;

• 3/5: Decent. This is where most entries will end up. These wines are clean and well-balanced, but not particularly memorable and/or exceptional. They are recommendable, but not an experience per se;

• 4/5: Exceptional. I sadly drink few wines that get this rating, but my purpose is to drink more. This denotes a memorable bottle that brought up some kind of emotion in me. This left a mark, and odds are I am now busy recommending it to everybody I know;

• 5/5: Perfect. I think I have probably tasted less than 5 bottles that would have qualified for a 5/5 in my entire life. This denotes an absolutely incredible wine that will imprint a definite memory for years to come - a true experience in itself.