Chateau Saint Martin de la Garrigue '98-'05 Blindtasting

Los Altos, CA
Tasted Monday, November 3, 2008 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 633 views

Introduction

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Introductory comments by tasting organizer Ross Bott:
Saint Martin de la Garrigue is a wine estate in the Languedoc region in les collines de L'Herault of southern France, producing about 25,000 cases a year. 'Garrigue' refers to the smell of the blend of provencal herbs (rosemary, sage, and particularly the fields of lavender), which are roasted in the warm provencal sun and pervade the air as well as the wines themselves. The history of the winery dates back almost 2000 years, when Romans first planted grapes in the region. By the 9th century, the area had converted to ownership by the Christian church, and continued to grow grapes and produce wines for the next 1200 years. More recently, it was owned by the Francois Henry family, and now is managed by Jean-Claude Zebalia.

San Martin owns a few hundred acres around their estate, planted to the broad array of Provence varietals. In addition to 8 different white varietals, they have red vineyards of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Carignane, Alicante, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and even an experimental plot of Tempranillo. Their style is ripeness and concentration (the first impression that one gets of many of their reds is "inky black"), and their ability to do this at remarkably low prices ($12-19) has made them one of the hottest properties in the region.

The domaine makes more than a dozen different reds, whites and roses. Kermit Lynch is the US importer for the wines, and he brings in six or seven of the best bottlings. They all have different varietal composition and oak treatment:

Cuvee St Martin blanc: Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Roussanne, Terret
Cuvee Tradition rose: Syrah-Carignan
Cuvee Reservee: a Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend; aging in large oak foudres
Cuvee Tradition: a Syrah-Carignan blend; aging in large oak foudres
Bronzinelle: Syrah-Grenache-Mourvedre-Carignan blend; aging in large oak foudres
Cuvee St Martin: Syrah-Carignan blend; some aging in small oak casks

Languedoc has been working on becoming a world-class region, upgrading winemaking facilities to state of the art equipment and incorporating a much higher percentage of new oak. The several of the recent vintages -- 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2005 in Provence have been the among the best vintages in several decades, producing big, rich wines. This, combined with the winery improvements, has led to a series of wonderful wines, delicious to drink when young, and capable of aging in many cases for up to a decade.

Tonight we'll try 8 St Martin de la Garrigues. I've included some older examples to give us a chance to see how these wines age, as well as their most recent releases.

Flight 1 - My TNs (8 Notes)

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This was a rare chance to taste a vertical of Languedoc wines, to see how well they're maturing. Although I've made a couple of visits so far to the Languedoc, I was not familiar with this producer. The name is very apt, as most of them had a nose reminiscent of the "garrigue," the combined herbal smells one associates with the south of France--lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme. The labels were rather amusing, as the artwork and fonts seem to change not only from year to year, but also, sometimes, for bottles from the same year. The '04 was a clear standout for me, and the Cuvee Traditions showed better, overall, than the Cuvee Reservees. Good values that clearly have some aging potential, at least for 7 to 10 years.

Closing

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