Domaine de Nizas, 2006 Languedoc-Roussillan, France

The Domaine de Nizas was acquired in 1998 by John Goelet with the collaboration of Bernard Portet, co-founder of Clos du Val in Napa Valley. A visionary, who had by the 1970s the idea of ​​making great wines using the world's best soils. John Goelet an American of French origin, a direct descendant of the family Guestier (traders in Bordeaux), has always had a traditional wine-based finesse and elegance. He had already created Clos du Val in Napa Valley (California), Taltarni in Victoria (Australia) and Clover Hill in Tasmania.  

Domaine de Nizas is located in the South of France, on the outskirts of the village of Nizas near Pézenas in the heart of the Languedoc region. Located 20 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, the exceptional terroir of Pezenas as ideal for creating high quality wines, the traditional way, which express the character Mediterranean climate with low rainfall and dry, warm summers.

On a manually tended 200-acre vineyard, the estate is known for handcrafted limited-production wines. Their goal is to serve as a model in terms of elegance, complexity, balance and aging ability among Mediterranean wines. The winery crafts boutique-style, artisanal wines and emphasizes sustainable agriculture.

Winemaking in the Languedoc region in the south of France began as early as the 5th Century B.C.E., when Greeks planted vineyards along the coast near the city of Narbonne. Those ancient vintners no doubt realized that the region’s soils were special. The winery’s terroir offers a unique mosaic of three soil types. These soils are deep and provide excellent drainage while retaining moisture at root level, ensuring vines fully ripen without water stress.

The Villafranchian (pebbles, river gravel soil), often found in the Chateauneuf du Pape area of the Southern Rhone Valley, preserves the freshness of flavors and produces elegant and velvety tannins.  This soil type brings finesse and structure to the wines grown at Nizas, as well as a good acidity that allows the wine to age. It produces aromas of chocolate and coffee in Syrah.

The Basalt, a type of volcanic flow unique to the Pézenas area, creates fine, mineral aromas and elegant structure with flavor sensations of spice and licorice.

The Marne Calcaire (limestone-clay) when planted with Syrah, results in more powerful wines with red berries aromas.

70 percent of the Domaine de Nizas acreage is classified as Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée Coteaux du Languedoc. The average age of the vines is 20 years, ranging from recently planted Syrah to 60 year-old Carignan. The varietals used in Domaine de Nizas wines include Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache in the AOC category as well as Syrah, Carignan, Viognier and Muscat Petit Grain in the Vin de Pays category.

Domaine de Nizas has been certified by the Bureau Veritas, an independent government bureau, which strives to protect the health of consumers and respect the environment. Domaine de Nizas obtained its sustainable agriculture certification in 2003 as a result of pioneering efforts to farm sustainably since their inception in 1998.

Domaine de Nizas practices sustainable agriculture by:

The vines are worked manually and a decisive approach is taken towards pruning, bud removal, lifting the wires, and if required, removing excess grapes.

The plantation of the vineyard with a long term view, conserving old vines with high quality potential such as our Carignan of 55 years old.

Favoring the biological life of the soils by using ploughing and grass rather than herbicides

Tracing each bottle of wine to a specific vineyard plot in order to more effectively control quality and segment any bottle variances to its origin in the vineyard

Minimally using selective fungicides and insecticides to conserve natural predators of vine parasites

WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY

Grapes are harvested at optimum ripeness with a good balance of sugar and acidity. The trellised vines are machine harvested, however, the young vines and old vines are hand-picked. Transport of the grapes in tipping trailers or small crates for the hand-picked fruit to assure good condition of the grapes from the vineyard (white grapes are protected from oxidization).

The cellar is situated at Usclas d’Hérault (5 to 10 km from the vineyards), this former apple warehouse transformed into a winery offers a well-adapted solution for vinifying, ageing and warehousing wines. Located on 3000 m² on the edge of the village, the 1300 m² building was renovated and transformed in May in time to receive the harvest in 2001.

Once the grapes arrive at the winery the grapes are de-stalked (with the exception of the Carignan to be vinified under carbonic maceration) and gently put into tanks. Maceration is carefully controlled in order to naturally enhance the work that has already been done in the vineyard shooting for deep colors, intense and pure aromas, full-bodied and soft tannins.

After 15 to 25 days on the skins, the grapes are pressed and the resulting wine is then graded according to the quality of the press. The wines pass into oak barrels to complete the malo-lactic fermentation. The oak ageing of part of the wine to be included in the final blend aims to enhance the Mediterranean character of our wines without dominating it. The wines aged in tanks are regularly pumped over.

After 9 to 12 months, the wines are pumped over and blended in preparation for the bottling, when they are lightly filtered. They are then aged in bottle in our air-conditioned warehouse awaiting their launch onto the market.

Description and praise for the wine:

Domaine de Nizas 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc
This is a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. This wine is deep garnet in color, with fragrant aromas of blackberries, bilberries (European blueberries) and spices. The distinctive herbal notes commonly found in wines around the Mediterranean called garrigue—lavender, sage, rosemary and wild thyme—speak to the wine’s regionality and terroir. The palate is well-balanced and clean, becoming round and full-bodied, with soft, ripe tannins and a long finish. Enjoyable now or age for up to five years in a cool cellar. 

Wine Spectator - This elegant red, with interesting hints of juniper and savory herb to the red fruit flavors. Well-structured and balanced, with a succulent finish. Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. Drink now through 2014. Score: 90. —Kim Marcus, September 30, 2010.

Copain Viognier, 2009 Tous Ensemble, Mendocino County

Copain Wine Cellars was founded in 1999 by Wells Guthrie and Kevin McQuown with just 200 cases of Pinot from Dennison Vineyard in Anderson Valley. Wells started his career working at the Wine Spectator’s San Francisco office as a tasting coordinator. It was during these first few years that he fell in love with Syrah and moved to the Northern Rhone. Wells worked for Chapoutier for two seasons in both the winery and vineyards learning about the Northern Rhone varietals and Biodynamics. Outside of Chapoutier, Wells spent as much time as he could with Jean Louis Chave, who he feels had an equally important impact upon his experiences in the Rhone. Following Chapoutier, Wells returned to work at Turley Wine Cellars working in both the vineyards and cellar. Today, Wells is the full-time owner and winemaker for Copain Wine Cellars.

Wells Guthrie has taken his Northern Rhone training and appreciation of Northern California's gentle ripening seasons to new heights in his recently assembled winery in Healdsburg. All of the vineyards are organically farmed, as Wells states, "As winemakers we are just custodians of that fruit allowing for the reflection of the site, varietal and vintage." Minimum intervention and organic farming practices allows Copain wines to display the natural balance of flora and fauna inherent in each site to impact the developing vine, fruit and finally the wine. The project is all about balance and elegance, which is achieved on their vineyard-designate wines as well as their multiple vineyard "Tous Ensemble" label.

 

For their first release of "Tous Ensemble" (French for "all together") the Viognier grapes were sourced from McDowell Valley Vineyards in Mendocino County.  However, the third release may just be its last as noted by the winemaker because of difficulty in vineyard commitments.

Copain's 2009 Viognier has captured the classic Viognier aromatics and flavors of fresh apricots, honeysuckle, as well as green papaya, Meyer lemons, apricots, Granny Smiths and hints of honey and fresh flowers (not as floral as most California Viogniers). This pale, lemon-colored wine is light and racy, avoiding the weighty, waxy nature of overly ripe Viognier and is a great white for those looking to enjoy the aromatic headiness of the varietal but with a medium-bodied palate with balanced acidity and a medium-length creamy finish.

Copain is dedicated to producing top-quality vineyard designated wines that are complex, varietally correct, and food friendly without being heavy handed. Winemaker Wells Guthrie believes that quality starts with the vineyard. In pursuit of this, Copaín has created and will continue to seek relationships with growers who are committed to what they believe are the key attributes necessary to produce world class wines: vineyard exposition, clonal selections, and dedication to organic farming practices.

Grapes are night-picked to maintain cold temperatures and whole cluster pressed once they arrive at the winery. This ideology is applied at the winery, where all fermentations occur with native yeast and the goal is to gently extract the flavors given from the vineyard with minimal intervention by replacing punch downs with pumping over just once a day to avoid any hard physical extraction, and using a maximum of 30 percent new French oak. Picking with lower potential alcohols over the past few vintages has let the purity and expression of each site shine: naturally keeping the wines lower in alcohol has resulted in retaining a brighter, more lively acidity and freshness on the palate making the wines more enjoyable with food.  The wine is stainless steel fermented and lightly filtered before bottling.

The Mendocino County AVA (American Viticultural Area) is located in the northernmost part of the North Coast AVA in California. The region, which is one of the state's largest wine-growing areas, is recognized for both its diversity and the quality of its grapes. Viticulture here dates back to the mid-1800s, following the California Gold Rush. As in so many US states, the wine industry was virtually destroyed by Prohibition.  

Located directly north of Sonoma County and about 90 miles north of San Francisco, the Mendocino wine region is bounded by California's Coastal Mountain Range, the Pacific Ocean and the great northern redwood forests. A mountainous region, it is part of the seismically active Coast Range and is also the place where the San Andreas Fault reaches the ocean. Almost 60 percent of the county is blanketed with coniferous forests.

Nearly all Mendocino vineyards are in the southern half of the county, which is divided into two distinct climatic zones by the Mendocino Range. Most of the vineyards are located in the inland valleys in the south and east areas of the region. The vineyards growing white wine grape varieties are located on flood plains and alluvium along the Navarro and Russian Rivers. Most of the red varieties are grown on the bench lands above. However, new areas for winemaking are being discovered further north where there are distinctive microclimates suited to growing grapes.

Wines from this region are often considered to be excellent value for money as they are not as well known as those from other parts of California. Land prices are also lower than further south. Many winemakers concentrate on growing organic grapes, with nearly 20% of the county's total production certified as organically grown – more than any other wine region in California.