« Château Maris is a Minervois estate producing terrific, character-filled wines… » Jeb Dunnuck

South of France: New Releases from the Languedoc and Roussillon
August 11, 2021
This report looks at a handful of producers from the Languedoc and Roussillon, mostly 2018s and 2019s. As I’ve written
in the past, these regions are a treasure trove of beautiful, character-filled wines that sell for a song. I hope you’re able
to give some of these a try!

LES AMANDIERS 2018 – 95 POINTS
My favorite in the lineup from Maris, the 2018 Minervois La Livinière Les Amandiers is largely Syrah (they usually include a small amount of Grenache) and offers a straight-up awesome bouquet of ripe black raspberries, almond, spicy oak, ground pepper, and Asian spices. Rich, full-bodied, and powerful, it has a nicely oaked, concentrated, seamless style, wonderful tannins, and a great, great finish. As with the other 2018s here, it has a slightly more front end-loaded profile, yet it should still have at least 7-8 years, if not a good decade, of prime drinking. It’s another fabulous wine from this estate I wish every reader could taste.

DYNAMIC 2018 – 92 POINTS Readers looking for a rich, complex, meaty Minervois with loads of character should check out the 2018 Minervois La
Livinière Dynamic. Giving up a deep purple hue as well as loads of ripe plum, black raspberry, and currant fruit, it’s medium to full-bodied and has loads of peppery garrigue and assorted meatiness, ripe tannins, a deep, layered midpalate, and a great finish. It’s beautifully done, with a soft, supple, already delicious style geared for enjoying over the coming 3-5 years.

BRAMA 2018 – 92 POINTS All varietal from old vines planted in clay and limestone soils, the 2018 Grenache Gris Brama is a stunner that just about
jumps out of the glass with its exotic lemon and lime zest, flower oil, honeysuckle, buttered toast, and even green almond-like aromatics. These all carry over to the palate where the wine is medium to full-bodied, has a rounded, elegant, seamless texture, an undeniable sense of minerality, good acidity and a great finish. An incredibly classy, delicious, balanced white, it should keep for 2-3 years with no issues, and I suspect it have an interesting evolution even beyond that.

LA TOUGE 2017 – 89/91 POINTS
“Leading off these new releases from Domaine Maris, the 2017 Syrah La Touge (there’s some Grenache in the blend as well) offers plenty of black and blue fruits as well as classic pepper, violets, and earthy aromas and flavors. It’s medium to full-bodied, juicy, balanced, and already delicious.”

Find all the details on JebDunnuck.com

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Five wines from Château Maris have been awarded at the Organic Global Masters 2021 by The Drinks Business : The highest award, Master to Dynamic 2018 and three gold medals Amandiers, the new no sulfer added cuvée Naive and Brama and a silver medal for Savoir Vieillir 2020 .

Brama 2019 GOLD MEDAL Lemon yellow. Some oily richness, stone fruit, youthful, bright too. Palate creamy, hint of nuts. Oily, quite rich, stone fruit, apricot, pear, and some freshness citrus too. Nice balance. Layered. Good. Textural white.

Les Amandiers 2018 – GOLD MEDAL Appearance – Deep red. Nose – Strongly ripe, concentrated cassis nose. Palate – Concentrated and rich. Ripe, generous mouthful, with strong vanilla and cherry oak flavour that is not reflected in any harsh or overextracted tannins. Perhaps a little one-dimensional but has great appeal of ripe and concentrated black fruit. Minty, toasty with masses of blackcurrant fruit and spice. Lovely, serious, structured red with cedar like oak. Serious. Red. Layered, toast and cedar, tannin and freshness, warmth, with core of cherry and blackcurrant. Lovely

DYNAMIC 2018 – GOLD MEDAL Deep ruby, purple rim. Intense, very ripe nose, juicy, ripe black cherry, creamy oak, strawberry jam, pepper. Palate too is intense, juicy, ripe red and dark berry fruit. Lots of high dry fine tannin a touch of strawberry jam, olive, blueberry, pepper, and cherry. Long finish, creamy oak but dry tannin. Touch warming.

SAVOIR VIEILLIR 2020 – GOLD MEDAL
” Deep ruby, purple rim. Some prunes, raisins, intense, blackcurrant, smells slightly sweet and porty. Palate lots of prunes, dried figs, blackcurrant. Dry, touch hollow, medium weight. Lots of tannins, fresh finish. Interesting. Structured red. Layered. “

NAIVE 2020 – GOLD MEDAL ” Deep ruby, purple rim. Powerful nose, ripe, dried fruit, prunes. Blackcurrant and cherry.
Palate too has some blackcurrant, ripe cherry, prunes but also a touch of olive, pepper. Long bright finish with red and dark fruit and while there is warming alcohol. Some nice dry tannin. Very good. Persistent, layered, structured warm climate red. A lovely example of an unoaked red. . ”

Discover all the awards on The Drinks Business.

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