Domaine De Lavabre is an ancient estate located at the foot of the Cevennes mountains in the appellation of the Pic Saint-Loup, north of Montpellier in the Lnguedoc region.Rescued from dilapidation by Olivier Bridel from Normandy, Domaine de Lavabre is now one of the foremost properties in the Languedoc. Traditional grapes including Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvèdre and Syrah are planted in this estate.
Three A.O.C. red wines are produced by Domaine De Lavabre:
Domain de Lavabre - an entry level cuvee
Les Demosielles de Lavabre - a mid tier red
Chateau Lavabre - top cuvee
The wine I contributed to the tasting here for WBW 33 is 2001 Chateau Lavabre Pic St. Loup. It has a whopping 14% alcohol by volume. Paid $25 in full retail from ViNOViNO, a shop in NYC that specializes in artisanal and estate bottled wines.
Tasting Notes:
Color: Deep garnet
Nose: Powerful aroma of roast meat, garrigue, dark fruit. Slightly alcoholic (not surprising with the 14% alcohol.)
Palate: Waves of cherry and blackberry that follows the nose. Very concentrated. Good acidity with firm backbone with a spicy backend. Tannins is still a bit harsh at this time.
Body: Medium
Finish: Medium long. Hints of earth.
Comments:
This wine does take a while to open up in the glass. Once it opens up, this wine holds up well for over 3 hours.
It is delicious right now but should be even better with 2 to 3 years of cellar time when all the elements are further integrated.
Drank it over 4 days (refrigerated with pump and vacuum). The alcohol and tannins softened up on the 3rd day but still held up well.
3 comments:
My favourite Languedoc region is Pic Saint-Loup. Cheers!
Joe,
Thanks for dropping by. I am so excited about all the Languedoc wines posted. Your selection is a good one too.
Anderw
Andrew,
Nice notes. I could almost taste this one. Sounds like you picked a very serious bottle -- perhaps not for everyday drinking. I'm glad you could give it time to enjoy more fully. That same thing happened with my 2001 entry from Faugères.
That 14% seems to be the norm for Pic Saint Loup wines (funny that my local blogging buddy Joe should favour it so much... uh-huh.) I've found that those 2001s were often bottled with 14.5 and 15% in alcohol in them. Like this one for instance. Or the Ch de Lascaux that I'm opening tonight and hope will be perfectly balanced.
Cheers! And thanks for playing.
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