Chateau Maris Carignan “Continuité de Nature” Minervois Cru La Livinière 2010

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Great grapes make great wines and at Chateau Maris we're lucky enough to have just what it takes to grow ripe, healthy grapes with plenty of flavor. This wine is seductive stuff with irresistible aromas of perfumed hedgerow fruits, spice and herb. There's a lovely breadth of flavor on the palate and, depending on your mood, you can either enjoy the fresh, fruit-forward nature of the wine or, take more time to revel in its more subtle side which reveals a savory edge with hints of mocha too. An extremely good food wine, we like to drink it with wholesome, flavorful but unfussy fare.

When asked about the Continuite de Nature, our winemaker Ben replied that “I picked it as ripe as possible on October 10th, simply put it in a tank and closed the door… There’s no doubt it will continue to improve over the next five years.” The juice is vinified in oak conical oak foudre and aged in 100% in oak vats for 18 months. The Continuité de Nature is very expressive and complex, very attractive in the mouth with firm yet silky tannins. It is extremely aromatic, spicy with a fabulously generous weight.

The Vintage
Dry until May when we were fortunate to get 110mm of rain that was to prove important in the intensely dry months that followed. We used biodynamic plant infusions in the vineyard (chamomile, nettle…). Limited trimming also prevented vine stress. Harvest began, in the sunshine on the 15th September. Syrah was the first to be picked and we finished – still with the sun in the sky – with the Grenache on the 7th October.

The harvest was a little stop and start as we worked to ensure we were the picking the grapes when they were at optimal ripeness.
The weather was perfect and the ripening period was slow; both of which helped give us fabulously concentrated, small-berried grapes that allowed us to produce wines that are amongst the best we have ever made at Château Maris.
The wines are concentrated with elegance and depth. Aromatically they have real complexity with floral and mineral notes and real freshness. It has been an especially successful vintage for grenache that has achieved the complexity and concentration of the great Southern Rhones…

The Soils
Dark brown and red coloured soils.
The grapes for this wine come from vineyards planted on hard and soft limestone and alluvial soils. The texture is balanced and is light at the top, becoming increasingly heavy the deeper you go. The vertical clay migration reduces the carbon levels.

The Varieties
90% carignan 10% Grenache

This Vineyard was planted in 1922.

The Wine
Vinification : The juice is vinified in oak tanks and during the four week-long maceration is gently pumped over with some punching of the cap.
Ageing : 100% in oak vats for 18 months.
Tasting Note :
Appearance : Very even and deep red and garnet colour. Bright with deep purple hints.
Nose : Open and expressive with great complexity. There are ripe black fruits (blackcurrants, elderberries) alongside more spicy characteristics (pepper, herbs)
Palate : Very attractive in the mouth with firm yet silky tannins. Aromatic, spicy with a fabulously generous weight. The finish is long and delicate.

AT : 3.75g/l
PH : 3.48
SR : 2g/l

2009 Château Maris Carignan Continuité de Nature (France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Minervois-La Livinière) 

A blend of 90% Carignan and 10% Grenache that was harvested in early October and aged for 18 months in oak vats, the 2009 Château Maris Carignan Continuité de Nature is a beauty! Loaded with aromas of black currants, sweet tobacco and assorted herbs, earth, toasted spices, and a saline like minerality, this outstanding wine is medium to full-bodied and beautifully proportioned, with layers of fruit, a classy, elegant texture, and solid length on the finish.  As with the Grenache, this benefits from a short decant and will shine for 4-6 years easily, although it's hard to resist now!  (91 pts.)

Wine Advocate, David Schildknecht, June 2011

90 Pts

"The Maris 2008 Carignan Continuite de Nature features juicy, sweetly-ripe cassis and blackberry, beguilingly complimented by toasted walnut, cherry pit, dark tobacco, and brown spices. Luscious, rich, and soothing, its slight finishing warmth is largely overridden by sheer generosity of fruit, and mouthwatering salinity. This ought to be worth following for at least 4-5 years."

Wine Spectator, November 2011

90 pts 

Minervois La Liviniere Continuite de Nature 2008 $25

"This suave red features will-spiced flavors of snappy cherry and plum, which are filled with chocolaty overtones.  The supple finish shows raspberry tart notes.  Grenache.  Drink now through 2017.  500 cases made."

Tim Atkin MW, 11th Nov 2011
My top dozen wines from the Biodyvin tasting

91 points

2009 Château Maris, Continuité de Nature, Minervois La Livinière

"Is Robert "Bertie" Eden finally starting to make the wines he has always dreamt of producing? This blend of old vine Carignan with 10% Grenache is a treat: pepper spicy, perfumed and well balanced with a palate-cleansing freshness underpinning the black fruits."

Chateau Maris Continuité de Nature Carignan 2008 - Gold Medal Distinction at The Concours des Grands Vins de Languedoc Roussillon