Château Gres Saint Paul | Cuvée Syrhus | AOC Coteaux du Languedoc 2006

PV Tasting Notes

The top wine of Chateau Gres Saint Paul, and as usual, this reminds me of a top flight Hermitage. For the price, this is really a treasure. The wine opens with strong aromas of Garrigue herbs, wild Rosemary Thyme and Sage, lovely concentrated blackberries, cassis, liquorice and high notes of spring blossom follow. Thoroughly sensational purity here, full bodied richness, super silky tannins, fans out across the palate filling every corner of the mouth, incredibly elegant, stylish, seamless and totally ripe, just keeps pulling you back for more.

91-92 Points Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate
Gres Saint Paul’s 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc Syrhus – aged entirely in barrique, from which, assembled, I tasted it – was be the last edition of this cuvee, says Philippe Salasc, to spend time in small barrels. High-toned cassis and blueberry fruit with heliotrope, lily, mint, resin, and black pepper fill the nose. Ravishing inner-mouth floral notes inform a coolly blue-fruited, silken-textured palate, leading to a long expressively floral, black-fruited, and herbal finish underlain by suggestions of wet stone. This triumph for its vintage is a worthy candidate for at least half a dozen years in the cellar. 

Located in Lunel, near the coast just north of Montpelier, Chateau Gres Saint Paul is one of the pioneering estates to have demonstrated red wine excellence in a windy, gravelly environment traditionally know for its sweet Muscat. From the standpoint of terroir, Lunel is more like the Costieres des Nimes or Chateauneuf than like other parts of the Languedoc. Philippe Salasc – former proprietor of Domaine Capion in his home town of Aniane, and collaborator with Chateau owner Jean-Philippe Serviere since 1996 – reflects a sentiment much abroad these days in the Languedoc when he says “being the South, we don’t need to take any extreme measures. I prefer to substitute length of maceration for degree of extraction, and to work the skins very little.” The team here is moving away from barrique and to the use of exclusively tank and large oak casks.