Mattes Sabran Corbieres Le Clos Redon 2011

Château de Mattes-Sabran 2011 Le Clos Redon, Corbières | 100% Syrah | Glorious aromas of the meat pan juices of a lamb roast rubbed thyme, sage, and lavender make for a welcoming nose and introduction. Rich, textural and balanced between red cherries and cracked pepper, red plums and garrigue, juicy acidity and dark cocoa like tannins. Corbières is every bit as gutsy and fragrant as a Northern Rhône Syrah but a touch more sauvage for its black olive notes and firm, thick skinned fruit.

Great Corbières should grab one by the collar and scold you for mistaking other lesser reds of Corbières as all the region can do -because this is what Corbières is all about: at once both seriously Syrah and as consumingly fragrant as a field of garrigue, one might mistakenly think they were drinking a tenor Châteauneuf-du-Papes except for this being 100% boldly ripened Syrah... there's a bass note that holds all the floral aromas from soaring up out of sight of the earth below. Corbières like this could define Corbières as a seldom achieved ideal: sage, rosemary, and plums, meat pan juices, juniper, and thyme all in a tension akin to to a Syrah of the northern Rhone. Stunning does not begin to describe this.

Le Clos Redon is Chateau du Mattes Sabran's bestselling wine because it offers a unique complexity and depth of flavor. When young, the Syrah contributes its fruity nose and elegance, though after some aging, the fragrant and supple Grenache makes this wine enjoyable after even six or eight years. Corbieres offers a cognate that would give a fine Cotes du Rhone or Gigondas a run for their money and still end up first past the post by a country mile.
Wine review by Nicholas Livingston, July 8th, 2014 (Flower)

Food Pairings

Winged beasties with dark meat like duck, goose, squab, and griffins. Hooved game. Roasted meats.