2009 D'Aupilhac Le Carignan

(90 points) Fresh juiciness and sheer refreshment here overcome any weaknesses that might be attributable to modest ripeness and relatively simplicity in this lightweight, unfiltered blend. Fadat’s 2009 Le Carignan leads with a whiff of game, backed by ripe black fruits that further inform a dense, firm but generously juicy palate, with suggestions of tamarind, toasted hickory, and berry seed tartness adding interest and invigoration to an imposingly persistent finish. As usual with this cuvee, it improved with aeration and can be expected to perform well for at least 6-8 years. Fadat points out that the characteristically slow and even ripening on these old vines was not perturbed or stressed by 2009 heat and drought, to which other grape varieties were more susceptible.

Sylvain Fadat continues to fine-tune his portfolio both in terms of the cuvees he chooses to bottle and of their quality. A retrospective tasting of both reds and whites that he held during the course of my recent visit in the Languedoc – and on which I shall report later in detail – impressed on me the extent to which the eventual complexity, harmony, and longevity of Fadat’s wines has been underestimated by me in their youth. Those individual lots from 2010 destined for Fadat’s top reds that I tasted from barrel suggested that this vintage will have a considerable edge over either of its predecessors. “At one point,” he notes, “we were nearly three weeks behind in 2010; by August it was ten days; and we ended up harvesting at an almost normal date, but with an unusual preservation of freshness” and, I would add, an almost uncanny degree of mineral-like characteristics, at least in the young wines. eRobertParker.com #196 Aug 2011 Reviewer: David Schildknecht