Le Clos Des Lumieres Les Vignes De Payy Marselan

Clos Des Lumières Les Vignes de Papy Marselan

WHY WE LOVE IT

  • Clos Des Lumières uses sustainable agriculture principles. They limit the amount of fertilizers are used and use only enough to maintain a balance in the soil or when required by the vines.
  • Harvesting is done during the night to limit oxidation.

Varietal Composition: 100% Marselan

Elaboration: The vineyard is made up of alluvial sand soil from the Gardon river, just a mile south of the famous Pont du Gard, a 2000 year old aqueduct built by the Romans, world’s biggest Roman aqueduct ever built. Underneath we have a grey clay soil from the Pliocene period (- 3 to -6 million years), including a deposit of algae when this area was covered by the Mediterranean. This region also benefits from the largest number of sunshine hours of France, important for the photo synthesis, sugar and maturing process. The northern wind called “Mistral”, blows up to 100 days a year, and keeps the vines clean and healthy.

The vines are planted with a density of 4000 per hectare and the yield is kept at a low level in order to have a high quality of grape. This is done by hedging, leaf-thinning and green harvesting. The harvest is done during the night to limit oxidation. The grapes are destemmed and crushed, followed by a cold pre-fermentation maceration to enhance fruit aromas in the wine. The vinification is done at low temperature with regular pumping over and cap-punching.

Tasting Notes: Marselan is a crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon with Grenache Noir. The wine gets its roundness, depth and juiciness from the Grenache. The structure and some spiciness from the Cabernet. This is a dark colored wine. It has a very intense nose dominated by black fruit, black current, mulberry, and ripe cherry. The palate has black fruit aromas, but is followed by spices such as bell pepper and laurel. The tannins are present and well built in. This wine has a lot of length and is considered in the top end of the Marselan wines. It is a grape variety to look for.

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PRODUCER BACKGROUND

Domaine le Clos des Lumières is a 50-hectare, family farm founded in 1946 by the grandfather of the domaine’s current vigneron, Gerald Serrano.  The ambitious and talented Gerald Serrano is solely responsible for the recent “coming out” of this estate – Prior to taking things over in 2003 Gerald’s father was selling all grapes on the estate to the local cooperative.

Having grown up on the property, Gerald is intimately familiar with the terroir here.  The oldest vines now edge 60 years in age and this land really seems to “pack the character in.”.  We’ve sold massive amounts of Rhone wine over the last forty years, and these are the most well-received Cotes du Rhone values we’ve carried in our history.

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