2019 Ollier-Taillefer Faugères Rouge ‘Clos des Murettes’

50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20% Carignan, all certified organic, grown in the highest zone of Faugères on its trademark schist soil. 100% destemmed fruit. Hand-harvested and fermented and aged simply in steel tank. 5,500 cases made. 

Tasting Notes

This is a powerful, serious and darkly toned wine that speaks deeply to the schist soils in which it is grown. Intense aromas of spice, smoke, licorice, dark blackberry fruit, white pepper, leather and earth leads into a medium-full bodied, bone dry palate with serious acid and tannin structure. A wonderful pairing for any rusticly prepared meat and an incredile value.

About Ollier-Taillefer

The villages of Faugères and Fos and their vineyards are the highest in the appellation—as high as 350 meters—and Fos is the most remote in the far northeast corner of the delimited area. This is the home of Ollier-Taillefer, a domain run by siblings Luc and Françoise Ollier. Their parents bottled their first wine in the mid-1970s (before their vows, he was an Ollier and she was a Taillefer), having come from four generations of growers in the region. The oldest vines Luc and Françoise farm today are Carignan, growing in a parcel planted by their great grandparents in 1910. Luc joined Domaine Ollier-Taillefer in 1990. Eleven years later he took the viticulture on a sustainable path under the umbrella of the Terra Vitas agency. In 2003, after eleven years as the director of the Faugères syndicate, Françoise joined Ollier-Taillefer. In 2009 they went organic with their farming and the domain received certification three years later. In 2012, with limestone from a quarry near the Pont du Gard, they built a new and quite beautiful cellar that uses a geo-thermal heat exchange to cool and heat the building. It backs up against a hillside, with its roof covered by a deep layer of soil for added insulation, and fundamental operations within are handled by gravity. All water used is captured and recycled. They farm 36 hectares (89 acres) of vines broken out among 50 parcels, each hand-harvested.

91 points, Tim Atkin MW. "[From] the hills in this North Eastern corner of Faugères. Young vines are the mainstay of this cuvée with notes of violets, black cherry, and with a fine peppery finish. Still incredibly fresh, in fact had
to look twice at the label as seemed younger than 2019. 2023-2025."