A huge nose of cassis, blackberry liqueur and black pepper catches your attention from the glass of 2006 L’Elephant red. Amazingly rich, full, viscous, and sweetly black fruited, it slathers the palate with chocolate, too. A hint of heat and almost splintery woodiness are largely subsumed under dark waves of fruit, but there is no sense of refreshment to be had from this, and only a slight hint of roasted meat and crushed stone suggests that complexities of an animal and mineral sort might gain in prominence as the wine ages. I sampled this wine not too long after bottling, and then again in December at the domaine, confirming that although overt oakiness remains quite evident, the underlying tannins here will not be easily resolved.A world-traveling long-time wine merchant with Roussillon roots, Renaud Chastagnol says he has fulfilled his life’s dream with this truly garage-sized winery in Vingrau, where with wine-making assistance from his friend Michel Tardieu and financial assistance from Singapore investors who appear to accept few limits on yield-control, biodynamic strictures, new wood, or packaging, he is turning out wines of phenomenal concentration. Just what lies behind the almost impenetrable wall of viscous sweet fruit and oak-enhanced tannin in one’s glass, how it might mature in bottle, and even whether it’s any fun to drink, are questions to which the answers, I suspect, will differ according to one’s temperament and taste. One thing for sure: these are extreme wines.A Bourgeois Family Selection (various importers), Swannanoa, NC; tel. (704) 837-2441
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