Domaine Clavel 2021 'La Copa Santa' Red Blend, Languedoc

94 pts - best buy                                                                     One of our favorite boutique producers from France!  The Domaine Clavel La Copa Santa is an outstanding Languedoc Rousillon wine dominated by plenty of fruits, spices, herbs, smooth and well balanced, decent length, can be kept longer but enjoyable now. A majority of Syrah grapes topped with Grenache noir.  La Copa Santa is the perfect blend of elegant wine and natural aromas of the Mediterranean. Aged for twenty months in neutral barrels, this wine is outstanding and absolutely gorgeous with aromas of rosemary, blackcurrant, sage and blackberry.  About the winery: The Clavels settled down in Saint-Bauzille-de-Montmel, north of Montpellier in 1994. Pierre is the son of Jean Clavel, a noted historian of the Languedoc vineyard. At the time, Jean foresaw the bright future of Languedoc wines long before the region’s boom. An omen that set off Pierre’s ideas and reinforced his desire to make wine. A disciplined autodidact, he settled down to work in 1986. His first success came in 1992 in the form of his first vintage, Copa Santa. Pierre Clavel fastidiously runs his domaine in the "La Mejanelle" region just northeast of Montpellier in southern France. This Coteaux du Languedoc region is renowned for its stone-laden soil, with a geological soil makeup very similar to its more famous neighbor, Châteauneuf du Pape. "La Copa Santa," or the holy cup, is Clavel's top wine.