Sorry, The Wine Spies doesn't support Internet Explorer anymore. Please use a newer browser to continue browsing our wine collections.
What We Say 2003 Richesse des Lauzeraies Lirac AOC
SECRET SAVINGS ALERT:
Subscribe to our Daily Dispatch (above) and you’ll always know what our Top Secret coupon code of the day is. Every day we issue a new members-only code that entitles you to have Ground Shipping included on orders of six or more and, sometimes, an added discount!
Mission Codename: A hop, skip and a jump
Operative: Agent White
Objective: Visit the Lirac AOC to find a wine of true Terroir character
Mission Status: Accomplished!
Current Winery: Les Vignerons de Tavel
Wine Subject: 2003 Richesse des Lauzeraies Lirac AOC
Backgrounder:
The Lirac AOC in France’s southern Rhone, just west of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and north of Avignon was originally known for its distinctive dry rose but it is its reds that show real Terroir driven character. These wines are blends of Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache, and sometimes Carignan and/or Cinsault. The wines are known to have a distinct spicy character and silky but textured minerality.
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Clear garnet and crimson with both ruby and orange brickish hues. Along the edges the color becomes ruby. When swirled, slow fat legs descend to the wine below.
Smell – Well developed old world aromas of smokey and earthy red cherry with an herbal and licorice kick. Candied fruit, caramel and minerality immediately follow as well as a subtle hint of vegital asparagus.
Feel – Smooth and dry, this full-bodied wine has ripe well developed tannins and good acidity that shows itself through tart tangy and spicy fruit. At mid-palate, this wine spreads across the tongue and shows a touch of spiced minerality.
Taste – Tart and ripe red cherry, dense spiced plum and a tiny bit of strawberry over an earthy base. New oak and spice blend with a touch of licorice, vanilla, smoke and herbal eucalyptus.
Finish – This wine lingers with spiced red fruit and earthy minerality with its textured ripe tannins hold the flavor cleanly until your next sip.
Conclusion – The 2003 Richesse des Lauzeraies Lirac AOC shows its Grenache and Syrah components well with classic old-world Terroir driven flavors. Classically southern Rhone in style, this wine’s Mediterranean aromas and flavors will pair well with your next venture into rustic French cuisine.
Mission Report:
Sitting and enjoying lunch at one of my favorite local French cafe’s with a prospective new asset, I decided to put this gal to the test. I pulled a bottle out of my wine bag and set it on the table, slowly rotating the bottle towards our new asset.
She paused for a moment, almost seeming absent minded, then said “Just a hop, skip and a jump”, as she signaled to the waiter to bring a wine-key and some glasses. With the bottle open, glasses poured and the wine starting to breathe, I asked her to explain her comment.
She looked at me, almost with contempt, and with a heavy sign, she said “you don’t know?” I smiled, and she explained, “Lirac, its just a hop, skip and a jump from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and I particularly like the spicy minerality of these wines.” As we tasted the wine and enjoyed our lunch, I though to myself, it will ne nice to bring on a new asset, particularly one as spicy as this one.
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of the Lirac AOC in the southern Rhone can be seen in this satellite photo.
What the Winery Says
Les Vignerons de Tavel
About This Wine:
Lirac is a Cru which associates elegancy and corpulence.
Bright robe of deep crimson with Purple tints. Aromas of ripe fruits, caramel and liquorice. Soft in the mouth at the beginning – robust and warm – full bodied wine. Black Grenache (45%) which brings softness and a high aromatic potential – Syrah (40%) fruit – fullness and body – Mourvedre (15%) fruit and spice aromas.
Serving advice: Red Lirac should be served at 18 degrees. Ageing for 5 to 7 years. This Lirac will be great with sauce meals, red meats, games and great cheese.
Vinification: The harvest is destalked. Traditional vinification with long vating periods. After putting into tanks, we pump the juice over to homogenize the harvest. During the alcoholic fermentation there are several pumping-over depending on denseness. Computer assisted cooling enables us to chill if necessary. On of our red Lirac is maturing in barrels during 10-12 months depending on the quality of the harvest.
About The Winery:
Situated in the south of France, to the heart of the valley of the Rhône, and to the doors of the provence, the cellar of the winegrowers of Tavel, you welcome within his soil, in order to propose you its swellings Tavel pinkish, Red and White Lirac, its coasts of the Rhône, and its wines of Country.
Discover our uniformly rewarded wines in the principal competitions and quoted in the gastronomic guides.
History:
TAVEL The wines of TAVEL exist since the era gallo Roman. To the first century of our era, the vine already was considered as an important commercial activity for TAVEL. The vines cultivated by the monks are known dice 887. The TAVEL was tasted to the table of Philippe the Beautiful and Louis XIV as well as to the Course of the Popes as early as 1358. The notoriety of TAVEL constructed itself with the assistance of other personalities illustrate, the popes Clement V, Benoit XIII, then late Ronsard, Louis XIV, Balzac and F.Mistral. Thus an extract of the roles of the capitation 1734 precise one: “The inhabitants of TAVEL have not or commerce or industry but have a big resource in the sale of their wines that by their big quality infinitely are looked for”.
At first XIX° century, the town prospers again, and the wine of TAVEL, carried by the request of the middle class being born is located in the catalogs of the better French houses. After the blight of the phylloxéra that destroys the vineyard from 1870, the Winegrowers have not of stop rebuilding and to protect their natural trumps and their notoriety. As early as 1902, with a remarkable precociousness, appears to TAVEL one of the all first unions of French agricultural defense. After long lawful battles, these fascinated and tenacious Winegrowers obtain in 1928 a demarcation of the area of name TAVEL. In 1936, after the creation of the INAO, they obtain immediately the classification in A.O.C. Tavel is the 1st French AOC to be recognized in pinkish.
THE CELLAR In 1937 always to the research of progres, some audacious winegrowers decided to unite itself to be founded the cellar of the Winegrowers of Tavel. She was inaugurated by the president of the republic Albert Lebrun in 1938. Since the winegrowers that succeeded themselves had not of stop stretching towards the excellence. Today again animated by soil love they conjugent tradition and modernity to offer you wines of exception.
Technical Analysis:
Varietals: Black Grenache 45%, Syrah 40%, Mourvedre 15%
Alcohol: 13.5%
Production Area: Lirac and Roquemarure
Vineyard: 18 hectares
Yield: 40 hl/ha
