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Comments
In my fantasy world where the authorities require every Languedoc vigneron to protect some old Cinsault and Carignan vines, they should all be required as well to taste La Peira’s 2007 Les Obriers de la Peira, or any other vintage of this remarkable blend of two parts Cinsault and one of Carignan. Production has already “ramped up” to over one thousand cases, or a bit more than the combined production of the estate’s other three cuvees. That said, the yields permitted these old vines (to say nothing of those that inform the other bottlings at this estate) would stop most growers dead in their tracks. This could be called “almonds (Cinsault) meet walnuts (Carignan)” and the nutty, toasty, richness is enhanced by fermentation and aging in young oaken uprights (whence I tasted it, with a small component from barriques having been added). To be sure, dark cherry and blackberry abound here too, along with hints of mint. Silky smooth and seductively palate-coating, enormously ripe to the point of resembling a liqueur, yet with its alcohol hidden and with a bright, vivacious core of fresh fruit, this will be irresistible on release, but who knows how many years it might go on delivering pleasure?
La Peira en Damaisela is the property of London-based composer Robert Dugan, located between Jonquieres and Aniane, on two adjacent parcels of no known previous distinction, but to which in 2004 instinct led him either with remarkable prescience or remarkable luck. The deep alluvial fan that is the basis for this site is only barely tilted, as it might be in St. Helena or Rutherford, St.-Estephe or Pomerol ... and these comparisons will not seem inapt once you experience the quality of La Peira’s wines. Claude Gros (of Chateau de Negly fame) consults here, expense seems not to have been spared on a new facility (with, of course, lots of new barrels), and Bordeaux-trained Jeremie Depierre is the hands-on (or, as I am sure he and Dugan would prefer me to put it “hands-off”) winemaker. New barrels of 500-600 liter capacity are favored here, incidentally, rather than classic (225 liter) barriques. I had the good fortune to taste the La Peira cuvees of 2005 and 2006 in late 2007 – before any wines had been released – and again this past December, when I tasted the extraordinary 2007s here for the first time. As this report goes to press, the first of the three red bottlings is about to be released in its 2007 rendition, but neither of the two other red cuvees from the 2006 vintage although all three were bottled at around 20-22 months has even been released yet.
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