Fond Cyprès 'La Syrah de la Pinède' Rouge 2020

Location: France, Languedoc-Roussillon

Winemakers: Laetitia Ourliac & Rodolphe Gianesini

Grapes: Syrah

Soil: Calcareous soil and blue marl, yet winds are just as important: the “vent Cers” from the northwest brings cold, dry weather as a counterpoint to the warm, humid air to the east, the Mediterranean “vent Marin”

Winemaking: Indigenous yeasts. De-stemmed and fermented for four weeks in concrete. Aged 9-10 months in barrique with gentle extractions. Bottled sans soufre. No fining or filtering

From the Importer Super Glou: 'La Syrah de la Pinède' Young (fifteen-year-old), lively Syrah vines bordering the neighboring forest of pine and Cypress trees, La Pinède. Only when we got lost on a solo hike through La Pinède did we understand how expansive these woods are, and how much this wine tastes the way the trees smell. Vibrant, bright and lush like its surroundings.

From the Brigitte Bardot of Corbières and her endearing husband come the wines of Fond Cyprès, a soulful, luscious lineup of Carignan, Syrah, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Viognier, Muscat, Cinsault and blends thereof.

The couple, whose real names are Laetitia Ourliac & Rodolphe Gianesini, is intent on producing wines that express their sultry slice of the Languedoc — specifically, Escales, in the northernmost part of the Corbières AOC. Their domaine begins at the end of a road lined with Cypress trees and extends in either direction across 15ha of lush vegetation, a secret garden of olives, tomatoes, eggplants, wild herbs, and newly-born kittens.

We first met Laetitia and Rodolphe in the deep, damp recesses of Cave Ackerman on a February afternoon in the Loire, and even then their wines were singing. But when we pulled up to their home in August and were greeted by bowls of freshly grilled palourdes, mussels, garlic, and parsley cooked in the juice we were about to drink, we understood their wines had made it feel like summer all along.