2021 Mas de Bressades Syrah

100% Syrah from vines averaging 40 years old. It undergoes a long fermentation, lasting 4-5 weeks. It’s aged in concrete tank for a few months before going into barrel for a year. Aromas of cassis, blackberry, violets, and incense lead to a medium-plus-bodied palate that’s both plush and precise: black fruit at the core, pepper and bay leaf at the edges, and fine, crisp tannins that finish stony and dry. With air, a smoked-meat echo and a cool graphite note emerge. Drink now-2030, lovely today with a half hour’s decanting.  Costières-de-Nîmes is the southernmost AOC of the Rhône Valley, though it long straddled Languedoc by identity. The soils are a postcard from the Rhône’s glacial past—blankets of rounded river stones over wind-blown clay-limestone—so heat radiates by day while roots drink deep at night. 

The mistral keeps canopies healthy and aromatics lifted; Mediterranean sun supplies generosity; elevation is modest, but the day–night swing is real.