2021 Domaine Anne Gros & Jean-Paul Tollot Minervois Cazelles Les Carretals Languedoc

Two legendary Burgundy estates — Domaine Anne Gros in Vosne-Romanee and Domaine Tollot-Beaut in Chorey-les-Beaune — ventured south to Languedoc in 2006 seeking happy vineyards and a sunnier expression of terroir.

They found it in Cazelles, a windswept village in eastern Minervois, where the limestone soils reminded Anne Gros of her Grand Cru Richebourg parcel back home. The couple travel 575 kilometers twice a month to tend centenarian vines they never imagined existed outside Burgundy.

Les Carretals is Anne Gros's self-described "little Richebourg" — a tiny 1.07-hectare plot planted in 1909 to Carignan and Grenache, rooted in pure limestone, iron, and clay so rocky it stops you in your tracks. It's the smallest and most prized vineyard in the domaine's Minervois holdings, farmed organically and hand-picked with the same rigor they apply to their grand cru Burgundies. The wine sees 14 months entirely in barrel, built to straddle youth and age.

This is a celebration of old-vine Carignan, cut with Grenache to lift the brooding concentration into something approachable now but built for the cellar. Black raspberry, dark currants, cinnamon, roses, and petrichor on the nose. Medium-bodied with citric acidity and tons of minerality — the kind of cut and precision you don't expect at this price. Black cherry and watermelon on the finish, smooth tannins with enough backbone to cellar a decade if you're patient.