Domaine de la Grange des Peres, IGP Pays d'Herault, France 2021

Attaining cult wine status is not an easy feat, and certainly not when the odds are stacked against you. Laurent Vaillé has achieved what others thought impossible. Having spent his early career training under such masters as Jean-François Coche-Dury (Meursault), Gérard Chave (Hermitage), and Eloi Durrbach (Domaine Trévallon, Provence), he settled in the l’Hérault of the Languedoc and purchased his own land in 1989, near Aniane. In this area of the region, where the limestone is hard and abundant and the soil poor, no one thought he would ever have any success planting a vineyard on his plot of choice. Though it took dynamite and bulldozing to clear twice the amount of limestone, boulders, and glacial scree that is found in neighboring vineyards, he found a great terroir for his grapes. He did not have to look far to find ideal bud wood, either. He sourced his Syrah, Marsanne, and Roussane cuttings from Gérard Chave and his Cabernet from Domaine Trévallon. Laurent’s South-facing vines get very low yields, normally from twenty to twenty-five hectoliters per hectare. All are pruned in the gobelet style. The simultaneous restraint and power of his wines makes them ideal for aging. As for the skeptics, they are currently eating their words. His area of the Languedoc has since become known to produce some of the greatest wines in the region, with the new appellation of Terrasses du Larzac, of which he is technically part, reaping attention and praise. In his words, “Nature gave us a partition of land. It is up to us to interpret it.”

The 2021 is a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a touch of Counoise, vinified with native yeasts and aged for two years in used French oak barrels. Yields are extremely low and the fruit is hand-harvested from gobelet-trained vines. No fining or filtration. In a cooler, more classical vintage like 2021, the wine leans into elegance over opulence: dark fruit, graphite, wild herbs, and a firm mineral core. Tannins are fine but present, and acidity is sharper than usual, giving this vintage more linear drive and aging potential than recent warmer years. A serious, quietly powerful wine that rewards patience.