Domaine Anne Gros et
Jean-Paul Tollot — Minervois

What happens when two of the Cote de Nuit’s most experienced winemakers set themselves to make terroir wines in the south of France?

We're initially looking at two of the wines from this exciting new Domaine and we're having to guess about price at this stage. We have sample bottles (just arrived) with which to test the waters.

LA 50/50 2010  Vin de Table (±$25)
— 30 year old Cargignans and 40 year old Cinsaults joined a nice cuvee of young 18 year old Grenaches. Having matured in stainless steel tanks, this wine is delicate, fruity and tense. Its vocation is to be refreshing and fresh, glass after glass... during a meal.
Decanter *** 16/20  - This has lovely spice with fresh peppery fruit and a fresh finish.There is southern warmth while retaining essential elegance. One for the barbecue.
Guide Parker 2011: 90/100 for 2008 (David Schildknecht) - The combination of textural refinement;palpable extract yet levity; sheer juicy exuberance; and persistent,dynamic interplay of stone, salt, bittersweet nut oils, and dark berry fruit render Gros and Tollot's 2008 La 50/50 a fine value apt to prove highly versatile over the next several years. Its slight aura of distilled fruit esters is an theme on which the youthful 2010 raw materials consistently pick up.
Les Fontanilles 2009 Minervois (±$32)
— This cuvee is made of 4 cepages, coming from soils dominated by Assignan sandstone, facing north and west. These small plots, are surrounded by scrubland, pines, thyme, rosemary and cistus, and comprise: 2.50 Ha of 20 year old Grenaches, 1.60 Ha of 20 year old Syrahs, 1.45 Ha of 45 year old Carignans, 1.20 Ha of 40 year old Cinsault. Each cepage is complete, and brings to the cuvee its own characteristics. One fruitness and freshness, another sweetness, another depth and length, the other distinction and energy.
Guide Parker 2011: 90/100 - A shrubby, resinous and pungently herbal overtone suggestive of marjoram and rosemary, along with notes of blond tobacco compliment the scents and flavors of ripe,diverse black fruits in Gros and Tollot's 2009 Fontanilles, which offers a seamlessly ripe, texturally-refined,and luscious intensity all the way through to an invigoratingly pungent,saliva-inducinggly saline finish. This ought to perform well for at least 5/7 years.
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate: 90/100 - This has a very attractive bouquet with blackberry, scorched earth, a touch of fennel and pine. Good definition. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannins matched with ripe, peppery black fruits and a gentle but insistent grip towards the finish. Very fine. Tasted January 2011.

Anne Gros and Jean-Paul Tollot are showing, in the magic of their first vintages, how respect for traditional grapes and terroir, coupled with a serious investment of knowhow, love, labour and capital, can produce transcendent wines.
Their first vintage was produced in 2008 and Robert Parker associate David Schildknecht notes, "Given this couple's background and well-known talents, it comes as no surprise to learn that they are rendering wines unlike any others in Minervois, or indeed anywhere else in the Languedoc. …One might argue that Gros was naive about consumers' expectations of Minervois vis-a-vis famous-name Burgundy. But it is the trade and consumers who ultimately must shed prejudice and recognize good value, unique personalities, and exciting innovations in wine when they taste them - otherwise the market will dictate that quality like that of these wines no longer issues from the Languedoc, notwithstanding their eloquent testimony to what is possible."