For our Easter dinner, where we celebrated at the same time the homecoming of my brother Felix (his Malaysia weblog here, in German), we had some good lamb straight out of the oven. It wasn’t hard to come up with some wine matches here – Languedoc wines are always perfect with lamb in my opinion, and luckily we had some spare bottles from this wonderful region
1999 Domaine Ellul-Ferrières „Vielles Vignes“ VDP D’Oc
Dark red colour but not brilliant- somehow a rough unclear aspect. On the sides lighter with orange shades. Nice Rosemary and herbs nose at the beginning, also cherry fruit, a certain sweetness reminding German „ Mon chéri“ chocolates (dark chocolate with a cherry in alcohol inside). On the palate sweet fruit reminding cherries, sweetness coming partly from the strong alcohol (14,5%), the body being rather thin then but followed by a long slightly astringent finish with a little bitterness.
Unfortunately the nice Rosemary bouquet disappeared after some hours of decanting and in the end the wine appeared very strong and powerfull lacking a bit of refinment. But nice to see that Languedoc wines have more and more an ageing ability this one being 8 years old.
84+
2000 Domaine Ellul-Ferrières „Les Romarins“ AOC Côteaux du Languedoc
Dark, slightly unclear colour with ruby reflexions and a lighter rim. Nice Rosemary scent and a touch of vanilla in the nose. On the palate sweet fruit like alcoholic cherries (kirsch), medium bodied with a nice length and slight astringency. Appears young and powerfull despite its 7 years of age.
87+
1998 Domaine Lignon, „Les vignes D’Antan“, AOC Minervois
This one had a very dark, nearly balck robe with slight ruby-red gleams. In the nose the typical peppery, spicy Minervois scent, but not too overwhelming- just right in an elegant manner mixed with a slight cigar-box and vanilla scent as well as plummy fruit (Felix also had some dried prosciutto in the nose). On the palate the same spicy feel with cigarbox and sweet plummy fruit, relatively well balanced with nicely hidden power of 14% alcohol, gently incoroprated wood. Medium body with grainy but smooth tannins which were not so astringent. Nice length.
I guess this one could even age one or 2 years more. Unfortunately it was the last of only 2 bottles. This is South of France how it should be. 90+