Chateau Fabas Le Mourral Minervois 2005: Modern Wine from Ancient Vineyards
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The Minervois vineyards in the wild areas of the Languedoc Roussillon region
Chateau Fabas is owned by one of the directors of Moet Chandon, Roland Augustin. Roland bought Chateau Fabas in 1995. He owned some vineyards in Champagne, but wanted to be able to have some fun and do some experimenting in an area that was not so outrageously expensive.
Roland is a man with big ideas like a harvesting machine that can tell a ripe grape from an unripe grape across several different grape types. He also likes a little wood with his Minervois, which is a “little out there” for the region.
Miraculously, the price of the best Minervois has not kept up with the quality revolution – it is one of the best values in France for affordable, first class, estate-bottled wine. With investments being made by owners like Roland Augustin this is sure to change, but until then it’s worth stocking up.
Chateau Fabas le Mourral is aged in oak which increases its ability to age. It is made from 60% Syrah (that’s the northern Rhone grape going into Hermitage etc.), 30% Grenache (that’s the Chateauneuf-du-Pape grape), and 10% Mourvedre (the Cotes du Rhone grape). The vines at Chateau Fabas are old – 35 to 45 years old. Le Mourral has won a vat-full of awards and that doesn’t surprise me.
The wine is balanced, substantial, darkly colored and loaded with dark fruit flavors. It’s a great food wine that will make its presence known against the darkest and most pungent of sauces.
If you are not familiar with Minervois, it is part of the Languedoc Roussillon which is the largest vineyard in the world. It stretches along the rim of the Mediterranean Sea from Nimes, which is quite a bit inland, almost to the border of Spain. There is a wine movement going on in the Languedoc Roussillon which has been simmering for years but now exploding.
For the longest time, many of the old guard growers just could not get it through their heads that in order to make great wine, you have to lower your yields and only include healthy, ripe grapes in your final blend, but the old guard is dying off and the new generation of wine makers is getting the message. After all, the potential has always been there — the climate is dry and sunny almost all of the time. In addition, the Mistral blows often and helps keep the vineyards free of pests.
The wine-growing area of Minervois is roughly between the city of Carcassonne and Narbonne. There are fewer than 200 independent growers in Minervois who bottle and market their own wines, but that number was under 50 just a few years ago.The quality of Minervois wines has increased exponentially since the eighties when the permitted yield was over 60 hectoliters per hectare. Now, that number is about 40.
When you open your Minervois you will be struck by its power and you’ll taste the black-cherry ripeness of those grapes that have matured under the Minervois summer. This wine always surprises me, not only with its goodness, but by its “gone-ness” when I go to get some in the cellar. Buy enough. Cynthia Hurley