Chateau de Lancyre Pic St. Loup Rouge Vieilles Vignes 2007
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Robert
Parker
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Lancyre's flagship bottling, produced from some of the oldest Syrah vines in the Languedoc! Cassis, plums, spearmint and licorice on the nose. Deep and dense on the palate, with an underlying minerality and a long finish.
Excellent with filet of beef, grilled tuna steak, or gamebirds.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Domaine Lanceyre's 2007 Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Vieilles Vignes – from Syrah with 35% Grenache, tasted assembled from tank – offers a marrow-like sweet, meaty savor as well as stone and graphite minerality to complement its abundance of rich, fresh black raspberry, plum, and cherry. This superb value offers abundant herbal inner-mouth aromatics as well, and clings with invigorating vivacity and intriguing complexity. I would feel comfortable holding it for 4-6 years. For a note on the impressive 2006 Vieilles Vignes bottling, consult issue 178. I cannot pretend that my palate agrees with those of Durand and Valentin as to the virtues of the barrel regimen employed for the estate's ostensibly top, Syrah-dominated – "Grande" – cuvee ,which includes a bit of Mourvedre as well as Grenache.
91-92 points.
Other Vintages
2019-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
Pic Saint-Loup has justifiably garnered a reputation as the Languedoc's best wine district. Vineyards are 15 miles inland from the Mediterranean and are almost 2000 feet above sea level. Summer days are blazingly hot (103°F!), but night-time temperatures almost always drop to below 60°F - sometimes even below 50°F! Syrah (the principal grape in Pic Saint-Loup) is usually picked in early October, and not in late August, as it is in many Languedoc and Southern Rhône vineyards, so stylistically, the wines are closer to those of the Northern Rhône than their Southern Rhône counterparts (think Hermitage/Côte Rotie, not Chateauneuf-du-Pape).
Is Lancyre the top wine estate in the Languedoc? Probably not. But they are one of the best, and their wines sell for 1/3 to 1/2 of the price of wines from the top handful of Languedoc estates. Equally important are the facts that a wide range of wines are produced, and that they are produced in substantial enough quantities and are readily available in most markets. For savvy wine consumers, it doesn't get much better than this.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Pic Saint-Loup is defined by the Pic Saint-Loup Mountain in its center as well as Montagne de l’Hortus, a long ridge of Jurassic limestone rising over 2,000 feet some 15 miles inland from the Mediterranean. Elevated from the coastal plains, Pic Saint-Loup’s 1,000 hectares of vineyards on well-drained, limestone-based soils, are blessed with cooler nights, allowing low yields and grapes to fully ripen while retaining acidity. The region supports many different grape varieties since it is spread over a number of elevations and microclimates.
Approved only for reds and rosés, Pic Saint-Loup wines aim for complex, earthy elegance, and are worth putting down for a few years. The southern French trio Grenache, Syrah and Mourvédre must constitute 90% of the red blends. Cherry, plum and berry fruit pick up spicy, herbal overtones from the surrounding garrigue, giving the wines a great balance of power and delicacy. Pic St Loup rosés, often containing a good dollop of Mourvédre, show more grip and color than many southern French pinks; the best ones can age with grace for five years or more.