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We visited Clos Marie in July of 2007 and spent a late afternoon barrel tasting with Christophe Peyrus in his cellar.
Christophe Peyrus took over his family’s vineyards in 1991. Prior to this, his father had sold the grapes to a local cooperative. From that point on, he sought council with some of the greatest winemakers in France (Didier Dagueneau, Clos Rougeard, Grange des Pères, etc) and now the French wine press considers his winery to be at the top of the appellation. The twenty hectare (50 acres) property is situated in and around the village of Lauret, north of Montpellier and the vineyards are scattered around the terraces that rise from the village up to the sharp cliffs that form part of the plateau of the Hortus mountain. The soils are clay and chalky limestone, and all of the vineyards are continuously plowed to force the vines’ roots to seek nourishment deep down in the limestone bedrock. The domaine has been farmed using biodynamic principles since 2000, and no pesticides or herbicides have ever been used. The harvest is done manually. Yields for the various cuvees vary between 15-35hl per hectare (less than 1 ton per acre to two ton per acre).
Metairies du Clos is composed of 50% Carignan, 30% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 5% Cinsault. Produced from vines 10-60 years old, this wine was aged 1/3 in large ovals and 2/3 in 1-2 year old barrels where the yields were 25hl/hectare (about 1.5 tons per acre). Very impressive deep, brooding dark fruit combine with ripe tannins and an opulent body to produce a very seductive wine. Some game and mushrooms in the nose give way to bright, dark cherry fruit aromas. Will age gracefully for 10-15 years, but delicious and complete now. Some would say priced like a Chateauneuf du Pape. Why? Compare this against any of them and you'll see. Christophe Peyrus is a top-flight winemaker who intuitively feels how to make a wine sing in just about any vintage. The Europeans discovered him a few years back and there is basically no wine for sale.
"Initial overtones of game and chocolate in the 2007 Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Metairies du Clos Vieilles Vignes – Carignan and Grenache with a small measure of Syrah – are in part a legacy of its slightly oxidative state prior to sulfuring. Beneath that, and on the palate, is a wonderful saturation of ripe black raspberry and cassis, decadently sweet, lily-like floral perfume, aromatic tropical woods, and black tea. The striking minerality here is saline and iodine-like, which perfectly supports the wine’s almost explosively bright and vivacious back end (and this with no added sulfur!). Palpably high extract and palate-staining persistence are here allied to a refinement of tannin and correspondingly caressing texture that goes beyond the already remarkable pleasures of the cuvee Simon. I imagine this will be worth cellaring for at least a decade. 93-94+ - Wine Advocate
"Christophe Peyrus and Francois Julien had only recently assembled the majority of their 2007 reds when I tasted with them in December, and that collection is as exciting as past experience with Clos Marie and recognition of the potential of this vintage would lead one to expect. “Ripeness came early and homogeneously,” says owner-winemaker Peyrus. “The harvest was very rapid, and the evolution of the wines has been precocious.” Yet even under these conditions, potential alcohol seldom exceeded 14.5% even for the blocks of Grenache, a circumstance Peyrus attributes to his biodynamic methods of cultivation. He is also a partisan of vendange entier (the inclusion of whole clusters in red wine fermentation – in his case generally at least 50%) and says the stems were thoroughly ripe (i.e. lignified) in 2007. It’s a measure of the excitement that within fifteen years, this estate has ascended from obscurity to the top echelon of French wine addresses. There is never a lot of new wood in this dripping-wet cellar, although much of what there is, interestingly, comes from Austrian barrel-maker Franz Stockinger. (The 2007 reds had never been sulfured when I tasted them – that happens here only at bottling, and then only very judiciously.)" - WA
Photograph: Our visit with Christophe Peyrus in the summer of 2007.
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