Winemaker Notes
The wine presents a bouquet of complex aromas featuring sautéed black cherries, cassis, licorice, pepper, and cured meats, complemented by a dark purple color. It is rich, full-bodied, yet elegant and seamless, with an impressive texture, making it an excellent match for ragouts, grilled meats, and entrecôte.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Minervois La Livinière Les Planels comes from more hillside parcels in the Minervois and it's 80% Syrah and 20% Grenache. It's crazy good stuff, with lots of black raspberry fruits, some floral, spicy, incense notes, full-bodied richness, and ripe, silky tannins. Aged all in used barrels, it’s well worth seeking out, and there's relatively good production as well, so it should be easier to find in the market.
-
James Suckling
Refined and balanced, yet it expresses an intense nose of blackberries, currants, black pepper, grilled meat, dried herbs and some cloves. Medium to full body with fine tannins. Well-crafted with a delicate array of herbs and dark berries mixing nicely with the spices in the focused, long finish. Syrah and grenache. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification.
Chateau Maris is the vision of Englishman Robert Eden, who emigrated to France over 20 years ago to pursue his dream of crafting wines that reflect, rather than mask the land on which the grapes are grown. Robert's approach to winemaking is based on the fundamental premise that wine is "grown", not "made".
To craft wines that reveal the true character of the land, Chateau Maris strictly adheres to biodynamics, which is in effect a supercharged system of organic farming. Similar to organic farming, biodynamics adopts a holistic approach that views the entire vineyard as a living system that is impacted by its surroundings. Biodynamics seeks to encourage vitality in the vineyard by introducing live matter into the soil through intensive composting. In addition, biodynamics places a strong emphasis on harnessing naturally occurring cycles.
The entire estate is certified Organic as well as certified Biodynamic, using homeopathic preparations instead of chemicals on its land. The cellar itself is the only building in existence constructed entirely with hemp blocks and contains no paint, no plastic, no chemicals. Thanks to the geothermal properties of hemp, the cellar has no heating nor cooling system, making the project not only energy self-sufficient but making the project one of the few carbon-negative constructions in the world.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Granted its own appellation within Minervois in the Languedoc region of France, Minervois La Livinière takes its name from cella vinaria, Latin for ‘wine cellar.’ In the hilly northern end of Minervois, the altitude and dense, rocky limestone soils of La Liviniere produce quality red Rhône Blends made from Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache and Carignan.