Elizabeth Gabay’s Buyer’s Guide to the Rosés of Southern France Languedoc-Roussillon :
Les Amouries 2019 91, €7-11
Corbieres AOP Mourvèdre
Pale red. Loads of ripe sweet jammy fruit. Baked bananas, honey, floral, lavender. Fruit opening out into luscious ripeness. Full bodied weighty, some floral notes, powerful salinity, mineral structure. A full-bodied gastronomic style. with some lovely oak and cherry pie. Oak incredibly evident but very pretty, floral, jovial rather than stiff toasty vanilla. Quince, ripe apples. Cloudberries, creamy, intensely creamy in fact with melt- in-the-mouth acidity that is beginning to soften. More floral, quince, juicy, honeyed and floral. Incredibly well integrated oak and a real pleasure to taste. Highly Recommended.
Famille Fabre Chateau de Luc 2020 87, €4-7, UK (Tolchard & The Grocery)
Languedoc AOP Cinsault, Grenache
Very pale shell pink. Creamy white fruit aromas. On the palate, ripe, creamy fruit: red berries and apples, Granny Smiths, orange peel, slightly menthol, aniseed, more subtle spiciness on the finish. A touch of sugared almonds. Long fresh zesty acidity and austere minerality – tending towards saline bitterness but just enough ripe fruit to balance. Really well integrated, balanced acidity with a subtly spicy, phenolic finish. Fruit character is very restrained – more white fruit than red or black – in a black glass I would say a white wine. Recommended.