2019 CORTEZA, Domaine La Lauzeta. Saint-Chinian

Domaine La Lauzeta was created in 2015 by Englishman Tom Hills. He has 23 hectares of old vines on schist-dominated soils in the middle of the Haut-Languedoc. Saint Chinian is a sub-region, north-west of Béziers, gaining an increasingly strong reputation for red wines with unexpected elegance.
Tom states: “The name La Lauzeta comes from the Occitan word for skylark, a petite bird with a proud crest and a beautiful song. Corteza is an old Occitan word deriving from the medieval European literary conception of cortez amor, or fin’amor. It referred to a courtly love, emphasising nobility and chivalry, which found expression in troubadour poetry in the region around the 12th century.”

40% Grenache, 34% Syrah, 14% Carignan, 12% Cinsault; all given a cool, gentle fermentation and then matured for 10 months in tank – no wood used at all.

Tanlyn waxes lyrical below, but she’s right; this is fine wine from an area associated with rusticity not finesse.

Tamlyn Currin on JancisRobinson.Com –
“Everything I want a St-Chinian to be! Deeply perfumed, the timbre of pure fruit resonating in full tone through every corner of your mouth. A wine that demands a full-body response with tannins so silky that they slip out the glass, slip off your tongue, slip through the fruit. Ripe red fruit with a fresh pomegranate sharpness and texture, so juicy your mouth waters as the wine hits your lips and yet not simple. Tingling, long and so delicious that I had goosebumps rill down my spine. Tom Hills may have made this to be an easy quaffing wine, but it’s so much more than that. I have eight more Languedoc reds to taste and all I want to do is abandon my post and go sit by the fire with an inappropriately large glass of this.”