Awards & Accolades
"To be bottled for the second time this year from an ancient parcel of Carignan growing practically right out of the schist mother rock on the way to Forca Real, Gallet’s 2012 Las Trabasseres displays from cask the most energy, tension, sap and sense of things mineral as well as the finest tannins of its young red wine collection. But that hasn’t come at the expense of fruit, as there is a luscious, sweet display of blackberry and elderberry. Crushed stone, peat, black tea and cinnamon add stimulating allure through a lingering and vibratory finish. Yields here are really low and the berries tiny, notes Gallet, so that despite high elevation and northern exposure this is one of the estate’s earliest parcels of black grapes to be picked. You can certainly taste the concentration of those few, tiny berries! Furthermore, she adds, the former grower took unusually good care of these vines, “and that really makes a difference in getting good results so soon after we acquired them.” I suspect this will be well worth following through at least 2028.
Marjorie Gallet and her “Rock of Angels” estate – for much more about the extent and evolution of which, consult my previous reports – continue to develop a distinctively attractive style reflecting an expanded range of bottlings in both red and white wines. (And don’t miss the fortified Maurys that she and husband Stephane are rendering under the name Les Terres de Fagayra, reviewed separately in this report.) Gallet also presented me this year with her first essay in rancio sec – a 2006; two successors are in barrel – but I didn’t find the magic of that genre had been captured, and this wine’s finish was pronouncedly bitter. In an encouraging example of investment in the future of these once-neglected and seldom young vines, the Gallets have recently planted massale selections of Carignan, Grenache Gris, and even Carignan Gris in some north-facing slopes on the way up from Montner to Forca Real, for which they often had to break rock by hand. Roughly half of Gallet’s organically-tended vineyards are now being plowed by horse; and the couple – with in her case an equestrian background – are now understudying this art with one of the few remaining local practitioners (active in that capacity since age 14) and planning to invest in two plow-horses of their own, once there is room to house them in a new winery that is on the drawing board, to be built on the road from Latour-de-France to Montner. (The Gallets’ cellar facilities in the center of Montner are strained to accommodate their crush and barrels.) Gallet believes that plowing is critical to getting the most out of the fine-grained – as she aptly puts it, “couscous-like” – microbial-rich soils she has worked so hard for the last eight years to build in sites most of which were heavily treated with pesticides and herbicides before she acquired them. Above, she deems plowing critical to forcing vine roots to grow straight and deep, which in her estimation is a prerequisite for optimal canopy and, eventually, ripeness and diversity of flavors without excessive alcohol. In both white and red, Gallet finds her 2012 more concentrated yet not necessarily less-fine (ultimately, i.e. with time) than her 2011s; and her penchant for early-harvest meant that she began picking whites already in early August, with results that I had not imagined possible in this year. “With the temperatures we can experience in August,” she explains, “even just one more day of heat can be a disaster to balance, and we always focus on balance and vibrance.” That said, despite the differences in weather and much larger crop, the 2011s were picked only a little later and at comparable levels of potential alcohol. “They’re more relaxed than usual,” says Gallet of those 2011s, adding that “even the reds could be enjoyed right after fermentation, and they have never shut down.” To the extent that barrels are utilized in Roc des Anges wines of either color, these represent older barriques and to a greater extent demi-muids and larger formats, especially 600-liter barrels from Stockinger and some lightly-used Rousseau foudres purchased from Bruno Clair’s Burgundy domaine. Gallet has come to the conclusion that – within reason, naturally – “for wines from schist, the sooner they are confined in the bottle the better it is for preserving purity, freshness, and tension” and reds are going into bottle now at 7-9 months. “If the wine is left to mature in the cellar over the summer,” she continues, “even with air conditioning we found that it gets this lightly burnt character and we don’t like that. Perhaps when we have our new winery and underground cellar we’ll try for some longer elevage.”Reviewed by David Schildknecht Published: Jan 30, 2014
