Mas Foulaquier Pic Saint-Loup Les Calades, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

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The Foulaquier 2009 Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Les Calades offers an enormously impressive lusciously black fruited, meaty, mineral mouthful of Syrah-Grenache. Black raspberry, cassis, purple plum, and huckleberry convey a tart, piquant edginess that offers deft constraint and counterpoint to the wine's sheer sweetness of fruit. Palpable density and a fine spread of tannins permit one to conceive if not glimpse a velvety textural future. Roasted red meats incorporate a charred bitterness but at the same time mouthwatering savor. Pencil lead, crushed stone, peat, salt, and black tea lend a slightly somber, smoky complexity to the long finish. This acts as though its roughly 60% Syrah is wearing the pants, and drinks like an alter-ego to the vintage's elegant, floral Petit Duc. It's likely to want at least a couple of years in bottle, and I am skeptical that it will ever achieve the compelling profundity of its 2007 predecessor. But I would happily plan to spend 8-10 years testing that hypothesis! Swiss former-architect Pierre Jequier's Mas Foulaquier - and the Les Tonillieres estate-within-an-estate of his wife and formerly Loire winemaker as well as former member of France's Assemblee Nationale Blandine Chauchat (about both of which one can read more in my issue 183 report) - represent one of the six or eight most exciting and consistently excellent sources in the Languedoc. Jequier is another partisan of the 2010 vintage but he managed formidable yet charming success with his early-harvested 2009s, a vintage he compares with 2007 - high praise at this address - and in which he finished harvesting the smallest crop in his career already September 1. -But despite the early harvest,- observes Jequier, -it's fantastic how mature the 2009s' tannins turned out to be- - in most instances, I would add. The relatively cool 2008 growing season coincided with this estate's largest harvest, and as had happened here once before, in 2002, picking extended into October, with excellent results (if at the price of a Les Calades bottling). Jequier, incidentally, is among those expressing a concern on which I have touched in general introductions to my Languedoc and Roussillon reports but fear that by the time my next ones appear two years from now I'll have to harp, namely the aesthetically and historically unfounded, seemingly arbitrary insistence of I.N.A.O. authorities as well as regional grower associations on treating Syrah as a virtual benchmark of quality - and so, for example requiring under current proposals 50% Syrah by surface area and 30% or more by volume for Pic St.-Loup. What worries Jequier is not merely the number of Foulaquier cuvees (not to mention those of other over-achieving estates) that would fail this requirement, but the fact that it ignores the widespread, mysterious - and at this estate increasingly acute - viral malady that has since early this decade been killing-off Syrah vines from here to California. Next year, incidentally, this estate will bottle its first white, from an interesting mixture of traditional cepages to which some mature black grape vines were grafted-over.Importers include Metropolis Wine Merchants, New York, 001 212 581 205 and Ansonia Imports, Wilmington, DE (215) 922-5169

The Foulaquier 2007 Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Les Calades - on whose formidable (roughly equal parts Syrah and Grenache) components I briefly commented in my issue 183 report - has turned out impressively indeed from bottle, after nearly two years- elevage. This is not one of those many wines of its vintage to disappoint one's expectations at this juncture! A gorgeous aroma of ripe black raspberry, cherry - shadowed by their distilled counterparts - accented with roasted red meats, sandalwood and cumin leads to an explosion of fruit on the expansive, polished palate, accompanied by an inner-mouth glow of alluring lily and heliotrope perfume. There is a clarity and sheer refreshment here that were rare in the wines of its vintage at any stage, and a combination of allure and complexity here that should enthrall you for at least another 6-8 years. Swiss former-architect Pierre Jequier's Mas Foulaquier - and the Les Tonillieres estate-within-an-estate of his wife and formerly Loire winemaker as well as former member of France's Assemblee Nationale Blandine Chauchat (about both of which one can read more in my issue 183 report) - represent one of the six or eight most exciting and consistently excellent sources in the Languedoc. Jequier is another partisan of the 2010 vintage but he managed formidable yet charming success with his early-harvested 2009s, a vintage he compares with 2007 - high praise at this address - and in which he finished harvesting the smallest crop in his career already September 1. -But despite the early harvest,- observes Jequier, -it's fantastic how mature the 2009s' tannins turned out to be- - in most instances, I would add. The relatively cool 2008 growing season coincided with this estate's largest harvest, and as had happened here once before, in 2002, picking extended into October, with excellent results (if at the price of a Les Calades bottling). Jequier, incidentally, is among those expressing a concern on which I have touched in general introductions to my Languedoc and Roussillon reports but fear that by the time my next ones appear two years from now I'll have to harp, namely the aesthetically and historically unfounded, seemingly arbitrary insistence of I.N.A.O. authorities as well as regional grower associations on treating Syrah as a virtual benchmark of quality - and so, for example requiring under current proposals 50% Syrah by surface area and 30% or more by volume for Pic St.-Loup. What worries Jequier is not merely the number of Foulaquier cuvees (not to mention those of other over-achieving estates) that would fail this requirement, but the fact that it ignores the widespread, mysterious - and at this estate increasingly acute - viral malady that has since early this decade been killing-off Syrah vines from here to California. Next year, incidentally, this estate will bottle its first white, from an interesting mixture of traditional cepages to which some mature black grape vines were grafted-over.Importers include Metropolis Wine Merchants, New York, 001 212 581 205 and Ansonia Imports, Wilmington, DE (215) 922-5169