2009 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Segna de Cor

It would no longer be appropriate to speak about the palindromally-named Roc des Anges 2009 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Segna de Cor as Roc des Anges' "second wine," even though that was Gallet's original intention. At 30,000 bottles, this blend of half Grenache with Carignan and Syrah, and still incorporating - though by no means any longer limited to - the fruit of the estate's younger vines of black fruits, represents its largest cuvee. Furthermore, the quality of past bottlings under this name will not prepare you for the superb quality offered by this excellent value introduction to Roc des Anges. Smoky black tea and crushed stone suggest what I take to be a typically schistic tenor, complimenting juicy, seamlessly sweet purple plum and blackberry on a palate of impressive purity and mid-palate richness. Nutmeg, cardamom, iodine, and iron filings - along with the aforementioned black tea and crushed stone - contribute to a finish of dynamic, haunting length. Plan to savor this beauty over the next 3-5 years. (Unfortunately I was unable to locate a bottle of the 2008.) A lot positive has been happening at Marjorie Gallet's now decade-old "Rock of Angels" estate. This begins, she believes, with the soil itself. "We started to find a difference in the grapes in 2008 attributable to our having worked the soil," she asserts, "and we really found this in 2009. Just tasting the grapes and then looking at the (potential) degrees (of alcohol), they were lower than usual. I think it took 8 or 9 years to have a real effect. We have deep root penetration and more stability in the plant, more freshness and flavor in the grapes." She and her husband Stephane - who takes the lead in the couple's Maury-based Domaine Les Terres de Fagaya, for more about which see under that name in the present report - began following a biodynamic protocol with the 2009 vintage, and she speculates that "before then, I think the vines were not yet ready to benefit from this." As for 2010, it seems certain to yield in bottle the most exciting collection here yet, but both primary fermentations and malolactic conversions were slower than in past years, so it was not possible in April to adequately describe eventual individual cuvees. Thanks to new equipment, Gallet was able in 2009 and 2010 to de-stem her black fruits while feeding 100% whole berries into the fermentor. In both vintages - whose differences in character Gallet seems inclined to minimize - she elected to harvest her whites during periods of late summer heat, "because," she opined, "if you waited, it meant elevated alcohol and pH." After having planted Syrah to supplement her acreage at the inception of her domaine, Gallet subsequently turned her attention to re-propagating selections massales of Carignan, and promises soon "to prove that the results can be good even when the grapes are young." Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also a Thomas Calder Selections Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29 with various importers, including Potomac Selections, Inc., Landover MD; tel. (301) 583-8844