Famille Fabre Grande Courtade Chardonnay 2022 IGP Pays d’Oc 2023-07-21 2023 – 2024
16 /20
Full bottle 1,160 g. Certified organic (Ecocert).
A refreshing, unoaked, golden-appley Chardonnay with pear-skin spices and clementine-sweet acidity. Very neat. (TC)
Famille Fabre Ch Fabre Gasparets Sélection de Crus 2019 Corbières-Boutenac 2023-07-21 2023 – 2035
17.5 /20
Full bottle 1,647 g. Certified organic (Ecocert). Carignan, Syrah, Mourvèdre. 12 months in French oak.
This has to be the poster child, surely, for Boutenac. It’s the perfect helical swirl of dark, silk-shifted fruit shining like a starling feather; glossy tannins; coal-dusted minerality; campfire-scorched rosemary. It’s dangerously drinkable. Long, iridescent, polished and pure. (TC)
Famille Fabre Generation Louis Andrieu Orange Wine 2022 Vin de France 2023-07-21 2023 – 2024
16.5 /20
Full bottle 1,161 g. Certified organic (Ecocert). 100% Sauvignon Blanc. 10 days of skin contact.
Golden, rather than orange. Heady honeysuckle and campsis blossom, papaya, orange-peel oils and apricot stone. Layers of fruit and spice and creaminess but there is also a gentle tug of tannins which pulls you back towards it. Not too extreme. An orange wine for skin-contact newbies. (TC)
Famille Fabre Grande Courtade Pinot Noir 2022 Vin de France 2023-07-21 2023 – 2025
16 /20
Full bottle 1,163 g. Certified organic (Ecocert).
Ripe strawberries, soft and gentle, delicate cinnamon spices and tannins that start off as light as gossamer and then tuck in, tighter and drier on the finish. Really good and much less hefty than most Languedoc Pinots. (TC)
Famille Fabre Lux de Luc 2020 Corbières 2023-07-21 2023 – 2032
17 /20
Full bottle 1,392 g. Certified organic (Ecocert). No added sulphites. Carignan and Mourvèdre.
Smells like mulberry pie and melted tarmac. Mineral and rugged with a long, pure core of black cherry and black berry. Fruit that, despite flecks of garrigue and pepper, has an almost steely sheen, countered by velvety, smoking-room-armchair-deep, chunky tannins. Corbières to the depths of its soul. Balanced, long and true. (TC)
Famille Fabre Grande Courtade Alvarinho 2022 IGP Pays d’Oc 2023-07-21 2023 – 2024
16/20
Full bottle 1,157 g. Certified organic (Ecocert).
Peaches, apples and rock salt. Crunchy crisp, super-fresh but not at all skinny or sharp – it rounds out in the mid palate in a satisfying way. It doesn’t quite have the depth or excitement of a Rias Baixas Albariño, but this variety does have potential in the Languedoc. (TC)
Famille Fabre Lux de Luc 2022 Corbières white 2023-07-21 2023 – 2026
17 /20
Full bottle 1,403 g. Certified organic (Ecocert). Roussanne, Rolle, Grenache Blanc. Spontaneous fermentation.
This is exactly the kind of white wine which gets me excited about the Languedoc. It’s crammed with fresh stone fruit and crunchy apples and little white flowers, the acidity is round but it has zing and it a fine spine of white-chalk and rain-on-stones minerality, and there is a dusting of spice in the middle which tastes as if it’s from the grapes and not from the winemaking and which gives it moreish texture. It’s long but not showy. It’s thirst-quenchingly fresh and it couldn’t come from anywhere other than the south of France. Bravo, Famille Fabre! (TC)
Famille Fabre Domaine de Luc L’Instant Rare Syrah/Viognier 2022 IGP Pays d’Oc 2023-07-21 2023 – 2024
15.5/20
Full bottle 1,161 g. Certified organic (Ecocert).
Light tannins, light fruit, very pretty and young and ‘purple’. Tastes a bit like grape jelly with a touch of milk chocolate and Turkish delight. Fresh. Easy drinking. (TC)
Famille Fabre Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 IGP Pays d’Oc 2023-07-21 2023 – 2028
16.5/20
Full bottle 1,161 g. Certified organic (Ecocert). Vines planted in 1990. Low-added sulphites.
Mulberry and dark cherry nose with a smudge of graphite and liquorice. Gorgeously supple tannins leaving the lingering impression of sweetly-bitter silk-and-oil kalamata olives. I’m not usually much of a fan of Cabernet Sauvignon from Languedoc, but this is fresh, the tannins are fluid, the dark fruit glows, and everything is in place. (TC)