2nd Greene Grape e-mail: The Soul of Gaillac - 2007 Causse-Marines "Les Peyrouzelles"

This is one of the great red wine values that I have tasted in the past few years. It screams out of the glass with lovely, spicy aromas of black fruits, a kind of Christmas spice and an aura that this will be a big mouthful of wine. Sometimes you can just smell that a wine is going to be huge. The color hints at that too, as the wine is extremely dark. After a 10 minute decant, the nose is incredibly inviting. I could not stop sniffing this wine as it was like a peacock releasing its tail with nuance after nuance.

So after around ten minutes of smelling the wine, I actually tasted it. What a palate! It literally knocked me over; I lost my balance and almost fell on my ass. It is a pretty big, wine but pure and rich with loads of tiny black and red fruits that just explode in your mouth. The tannins are fine and incredibly detailed. It is amazing to have this high quality of tannin in a wine at this price-point. The finish is long and juicy, with the feeling of all these tiny fruits coming alive in your mouth, combined with a silken texture wrapped in a package of incredible purity and freshness. As the old expression goes this is an "iron fist in a velvet glove."

Causse-Marines is a relatively new estate, bought in 1993, and named after the creek that that ends at the bottom of the property. They are a natural wine producer (more in sidebar), and do not use pesticides or herbicides in the vineyards. More importantly they focus on the brilliant and fascinating ancestral grapes of the great Gaillac region. Many lazy producers will use Cabernet, Merlot or other "international varietals" to beef up the blend and make it more "accessible", sacrificing the authenticity and terroir of this unique region. That is an interesting fact once you realize that Patrice Lescarret, the proprietor of the estate drank Bordeaux up until the age of 16 and went to oenology school in Bordeaux! He escaped to Gaillac in 1993 and the rest is history. This particular wine, the 2007 Gaillac "Les Peyrouzelles" is an absolutely brilliant expression of Gaillac and simply stated, one of the best value wines I have tasted this year, and I taste a lot of inexpensive wine. The price is too good to be true. This will go as low as $16.49, which is an astonishing price for a wine of this quality.

The yields at Causse-Marines are miniscule ranging from 15 hl/ha to 30 hl/ha. Average yields in Gaillac are over 60hl/ha, so the sorting process of the grapes at harvest, which is all done manually (by hand) is a labor of love. There are no clones in their vineyards which adds a given authenticity to the wine. Also, the vines that were replanted were done with a process called "Masalle Selection" which is propagating new vines from strong and healthy mother vines within in the vineyard. "Masalle Selection" is very important to preserve the integrity and terroir of the vineyard and is one of the basic tenets of "natural wine." More about that in the sidebar. They are certified organic and use no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides in their vineyard at all. Causse-Marines uses minimal sulfur and some of their wines are sulfur free. These wines are treated like their own children; nurtured from the moment the bud breaks to the moment they are bottled.

Made from a blend of Duras, Syrah, Alicante and Jurancon, this wine needs to be decanted for 10 minutes before drinking. There is a hint of reduction once it is opened as a result of the wine-making process. Reduction is the opposite of oxidation. Oxidation is too much oxygen during the wine-making process and reduction is too little which results in some "off" aromas called "reductive aromas." These can be sulfuric but they will blow off with some exposure to oxygen. Nothing to worry about and this is a result of the wine-makers actual intention as they want to minimize oxygen during the wine-making process.

I had no idea what this wine costs when I was tasting it, and when the importer told me I did a double take as this was too good to be true. But if you look in the so-called backwaters of France, beyond Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhone, there is an ocean of value out there. Gaillac does not have the same cachet or brand recognition as say Bordeaux, so the instant "brand tax" does not exist and the quality you get in the bottle is incredible. In particular Southwest France has a reputation for sturdy spicy reds, so look for future offers from Gaillac, Marcillac, Mauzac and Irouleguy amongst others.

One Bottle Price - $18.99
Special 6 bottle Price - $17.99 ($107.94)
Special Case Price - $16.49 ($197.88)