Le Sabina 2013, du Clos del Rey
These are some brilliant wines by the father/son pair of Jacques and Julien Montagne, who created the estate in 2001. The estate covers roughly 6 hectares around the village of Maury, and they fashion three cuvees; L'Aragone, Le Sabina and the Clos del Rey. Old vines, low yields and mostly concrete tank aging are the name of the game, and while these are ripe, full-throttle wines, they always stay classy and fresh. And Le Sabina, according to an American taster from the leading Chicage newspaper, is the best, the 'Gem'.
This wine is from the areas of garriques(areas for growing rosemarry, thme and the like), so the palate does recalls a strong sense of spices, subtle ones. Vines are old like over 120 years-of-age, but does show much of that kind of intensity, and is quite modern too. Not too oaked influenced, it is violet and lavender nosed. The dark cherry fruit seems not suppresssed, and is very clean too. Team thinks this wine is voluptuous on entry, though it is beatifully simple, driving towards a soft minerality and powerdery finish, with a lingering touch of dark chocolate and intense licorice. Could have been better with even More acidity and mid palate. A must-have for BBQ and the type of meat-work events.
Score achievements are WA92 and WE92. Not bad.
Parker says 'Big Beauty and Big Score.' Joe and his teams says, ' Black raspberry, crème de cassis, violets and creamy licorice all come together beautifully on the nose, and it has full-bodied richness, a rounded, sexy and pure style on the palate that keeps you coming back to the glass. Made form 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Carignan, brought up all in concrete tank, it's another terrific wine from this estate that savvy readers need to snatch up.
