Domaine Les Serrals ‘Cricri d’Amour’ Rouge 2019

Location: France, Languedoc-Roussillon

Winemaker: Chloé Barthet & Frédéric Almazor

Grapes: Grenache, Cinsault

From us at M&L: Frédéric and Chloé of Domaine les Serrals live in the tiny town of Faugères (population ~600), and if you follow a switchback road just a few miles you’ll find their 6.4 hectares of vines, dedicated to the Languedoc’s iconic red grapes: Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, and Grenache, all between 20 and 80 years old. Fréd and Chloé met in the corporate world but fell in love with viticulture and traveled around the world before finding these perfect vines on two small ‘serrals’ (‘hills’ in Occitan) all growing on on neighboring plots of schist/sandstone/limestone. I was fortunate to work for them a couple years back and was blown away by their dedication, experimentation, and attention to every detail in the vines. The first day I arrived we spent several hours non-stop stirring horn manure in a specific counter-clockwise/clockwise motion into rainwater that had been collected from tanks in their backyard (which had all been strained and heated to a specific temperature to get rid of bacteria), then poured the gallons of mixture into copper tanks which we then drove over to the vines, strapped to our backs, and hiked through the steep slopes watering the rows of vines. That’s just one afternoon and part of an evening in the life of a vigneron. And such labors of love will always be revealed in the glass. ‘Cricri d’Amour’ is sourced from a parcel rented from local legend Christiane who owned and operated the first gay club in Montpelier in the 70s (highly illegal at the time). Grenache and Cinsault sing together in the perfect balance of deep rich cherry fruits to filigreed charcoal tannins, elegant and defiantly delicious. This is made for drinking with a chill after any kind of sweat-inducing activity; smooth deep juice, sleek backbone, wildly energetic, feisty, alluring, for drinking in a state of pure pleasure.-Lennie