This wine has great appeal, attractive berry and fresh herbs and soil notes with pie dough and concentrated berries. The palate has some bramble and forest floor with cedar and red cherries. This wine gives round tannin structure and is medium plus body. 

 

Jeff Carrel was born in 1969 in a suburb of Paris, where Les Darons was an affectionate nickname for “the parents;” it’s also his homage to the “ancestor” grapes of the Languedoc, Grenache and Carignan.  Jeff enrolled in college to pursue a career in chemistry, but left to study enology at Montpelier, France’s premier wine university.  He works both as a winemaker and a consultant of some renown, providing assistance in Priorat, Languedoc, Bordeaux, Beaujolais, and Burgundy.  He also makes a portfolio of his own wines.

 

The Carignan and Grenache that go into this wine come from 40+-year-old vines, the Syrah from 20-year-old vines.  The grapes hail from La Clape (39%), the Agley Valley (35%), Minervois (12%), Saint-Chinian (8%), and Corbieres (6%).  All are sustainably grown and harvested manually.  Grapes are completely destemmed, crushed, and vinified together, not a process easy to do.  Fermentation is fairly fast (10 days), and the wine sees no oak—all its spiciness comes from the grapes themselves.