Our Cabrerisse comes from 40-60 year-old Carignan vines, dry-famed in the stony landscape of this small Languedoc appellation. Winemaker Anne Sarda works her vineyards by hand, and the wine is fermented with native, ambient yeasts and aged in concrete vessels up to 105 years old.
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Wine Description
Reviews / Scores / Notes
2021 Coteaux de Cabrerisse: “All carignan; 40-60 year old vines. Dark purple color./ Boy, and that old vines carignan black fruit concentrate. Just as impressively endowed as in earlier encounters./ Large, pretty powerful, well concentrated old vines extracts. Long flavors and textures. A whale of a carignan delivery for this price. Why do Midi winegrowers fool around with syrah when carignan supplies superior black fruit? 17.0+.” – David Scheer, Village Corner, Ann Arbor, MI
2021 Vintage Report: Unfavorable weather conditions had serious consequences. Firstly, production was historically low. In Languedoc, for example, volumes were down by more than 30% compared with 2020. Temperatures delayed the vegetative cycle, which in turn had repercussions on ripening. However, thanks to constant monitoring and recognized technical expertise, the Sarda family was able to manage and maintain good grape quality.
2021 Tasting Notes: Beautiful balance. The wine is not sun-kissed, but the ripeness of the grapes is there: with softer tannins and juicy substance. Finesse and freshness characterize these wines, which are a pleasure to drink young.
2022 Vintage Report: The spring of 2022 was exceptionally mild, with generous rainfall in March replenishing the soil, followed by very high temperatures in May—the hottest since 1981—which led to early flowering. The vines then faced a classic Mediterranean summer, with several weeks of intense heat raising concerns about concentration or scalding, but the vines proved resilient and adapted to the conditions. In mid-August, the expected Cevennes storms arrived, but from September onwards, favorable weather returned, allowing the winemaker to guide the vines to full maturity, even in the later-ripening areas, just in time for harvest.
2022 Tasting Notes: The Carignan grapes express themselves on notes of fresh red fruit. Beautiful ripeness, supple balance of tannins. The 2022 is a little richer than the 2021, and slightly more complex. Elegance and finesse are the watchwords of this 2022 harvest!
2023 Vintage Report: The results of the 2023 harvest are mixed: positive in terms of quality, but with a marked difference in terms of volume, especially in the driest, non-irrigated areas. low rainfall and scorching temperatures had a major impact on wine production. One striking figure sums it all up: an average drop in production estimated at 25% compared to the previous year.
2023 Tasting Notes: As Carignan is a late-ripening variety, it was able to ripen without any problems. The juices are well-balanced, despite the sunny weather.On the tasting side, the quality of the red wine is rather concentrated, “sunny” but with aromatic brightness, and homogeneous. The profiles are rather colorful, fruity and “ripe”, with good character and solid structure. Rich but balanced. Tannins are soft and supple.
The Languedoc: the best-value wine region in France, where viticulture is central to the economy and produces more wine than any other region in France. For many years the Languedoc was known more for quantity than quality, but aggressive vine-pull schemes coupled with a renewed interest in quality from independent winemakers have changed the landscape significantly. What hasn’t changed is that it is – and has always been – as Jancis Robinson puts it, “the land of the proud peasant farmer.”
Our winemaker Anne Sarda and her team do their vineyard work by hand. Carignan vines, up to 60 years old, grow as bush vines at 130 meters altitude, necessitating hand harvest and producing low yields of 30 hl/ha. The climate is dry and the vines struggle in their stony soils – too stony to even plant cover crops. It is a wild and rural landscape, yet strikingly beautiful and natural. No pesticides, no herbicides, and no irrigation are employed. The estate is HVE Level 3 Certified.
After the intense labor in the vineyards, Anne works with a delicate touch in the cellar. Spontaneous fermentation by native, ambient yeasts takes place in large concrete tanks, followed by 10 days’ maceration, then aging in old concrete vessels that are at least 60 (and up to 105 years!) old. The wine is not fined, just lightly filtered and an infinitesimal 2 g/hl of sulfur is added right before bottling.
Saint Laurent de la Cabrerisse is one of the 5 municipalities that qualify for the small Coteaux de Cabrerisse IGP. Anne’s rendition of it – expressing all the character of those old Carignan vines on stony soils – is intense and pure.
Size: 750ml
IGP: Coteaux de Cabrerisse
Soil Type: Limestone & Clay
Varieties: 100% Carignan
Age of Vines: 40-60 years
Farming: HVE Level 3 Certified
Alcohol: 14.7%
Aging Details: Concrete tank
