Domaine Borie de Maurel, Minervois (Languedoc, France) 2009

 Esprit d’Automme is this winery’s entry-level wine, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a serious wine.  A blend of Syrah, Carignan and Grenache, it tastes of lovely ripe strawberry, raspberry fruit with savory notes of dried herbs and spicy black pepper.  It’s juicy and generous on the palate with dusty tannins in the finish.  The herbal component of the savory notes come from the local vegetation called garrigue, best understood by taking a walk in the Languedoc countryside where hundreds of aromatic plants grow wild.  Plants like thyme, rosemary, fennel, fig, lavender and juniper growing on the limestone soil of the region blend their aromas into a perfume found nowhere else on earth.