14.5% abv, Lou Caminé, Vaucluse, imported by Esprit du Vin, Boca Raton, FL. Cork closure: natural. Biodynamic calendar: fruit day.
Lirac can be the secret weapon on a Southern Rhône wine lover, Châteauneuf on a Côte du Rhône-Villages budget if you will. Here you’ll find a combination of historic notoriety of great wines, a fine terroir similar to CDP, but somehow these wines hardly seem to be on anyone’s radar. Why so? How it must be to live in the shadow of the great and favorite wines of the French popes. Lirac is know for its low and gentile hills on the right bank of the river Rhône and here you will find the great round pudding stones that drink up the sunshine and keep the vines warm, affectionally known by the locals as ‘galets roulés’. The appellation was granted in 1946, rather early for France but still over 10 years in CDP’s shadow. The wines historically were favorites from the papal court of Avignon, and it is legend now that Pope Innocent IV, Henry IV, and Louis XIV were great admirers of the wines of Lirac.
Ogier’s Lirac a blend of Grenach, Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Cinsault; the grapes are de-stemmed, crushed, and aged in vat with a nice cold soak prior to fermentation. No new oak is used on this wine, so the flavors are primary and tertiary in nature and due to the winemaking this is very ready to drink and may not have the kind of potential for aging by design.
Tasting note: The wine is deep garnet in color with a clean nose of medium+ intensity with aromas of lilac, violet, potpourri, black cherry, raspberry, leather, cedar, and beeswax. On the palate this wine is dry with medium acid, medium+ tannins, medium body, medium+ alcohol, medium+ flavor intensity and a medium finish with flavors of cranberry, black cherry, cola, rhubarb, Turkish figs, cinnamon, caramel, candied orange peel, golden raisin. This was fun to drink but it sadly lacks the balance to go much further and came up a bit short on the finish, drink now; this wine is good: 8.8/10.