Anne Gros & Jean Paul Tollot La Ciaude Minervois 2021

Anne Gros is one of the superstars of Burgundy, a winemaker whose talents lie in crafting exquisite wines from her Domaine based in Vosne-Romanee. Her estate in Minervois, in partnership with Jean-Paul Tollot, also crafts excellent wines. The serious winemaking skill brought by this couple means that these wines are achieving immense acclaim from the critics. Jeb Dunnuck notes that these are "serious, structured and age-worthy efforts," while David Schildknecht notes that "they are rendering wines unlike any others in Minervois, or indeed the whole of the Languedoc." This is Anne’s ‘great terroir’ wine, one that benefits from a unique vein of limestone, à la Burgundy. ‘Ciaude’ in the local dialect means sun; every sip is saturated with rich red /black summer fruits.Aged in a mix of 80% Barrique and 20% stainless steel this has notes of wild flowers, loganberry, blackberry and fennel. The palate is bright and vivacious with aniseed, dark fruits and a lovely salty minerality on the finish. La Ciaude is a blend of 50% Carignan, 30% Syrah and 20% Grenache from mainly dogged old vines: 1.3 ha 25 year old syrah 0.8 ha 108 year old carignan 0.5 ha 50 year old caringnan 0.5 ha 12 year old Grenache.