Belle Lurette

Jancis Robinson MW 17 (TC) „Deep, ripe plum fruit with a homeopathic dose of something that smells a little bretty – not in an unattractive way at all, though! Real purity of red fruit – strawberries, wild raspberries, bullace plums – tightly interwoven with gnarled, woody tannins and woody spices. A touch of salvia-leaf freshness lifting the finish. The craggy poetry of old Carignan in a bottle… (TC) 2021-2028

Zeit Magazin, Gero von Randow „kraftvoll, komplex, subtil“

Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France 2021, RVF 92 « Lumineux, gracile et aromatique, Belle Lurette est déjà excellent ! »

James Suckling 91 « Nice intensity to this old-vine carignan, Full and well poised with nicely integrated tannins and persistent, fresh fruit.”

Alan March, Amarchinthevines “Belle Lurette is the showcase for the Carignan grape, and my word, this was a treat. The 2018 is as good a wine as I have tasted in a long time. This is the perfect example of how the vines and wines have improved in her care, Belle Lurette has blossomed into a real star. The 2018 was poised, elegant, direct yet rich and powerful with persistent fruit and freshness. Stunning. Brigitte’s wines would be very high on my list of recommendations for people asking for the best Languedoc and Faugères wines. That Belle Lurette 18 will stay in my memory for a long time to come, reflecting its name”

Jancis Robinson MW 17 (TC) « Very savoury nose that has all the deep, wild, intense, caramelised notes of roast venison in a blackberry and mushroom jus. Baritone with dark sweetness wrapped in silk-and-sacking tannins. A tiny bit dry, but that will disappear with food. Lifted by a breath of sage and lavender that blows long and right through the wine to the finish. You can feel the schist in the bones of this wine. Elegant, as the Cébène wines always are. (TC)

Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France 2019, RVF 15 «Tanins caressants, expression fine du carignan »

De Grote “heeft gesteld ‘vin du nord’ te maken in het zuiden. Op haar ‘grand terroir de schiste’ doet zij dat in dit geval met oude carignanstokken. En haar noord-zuidwisseltruc resulteerde in een carignan pur sang. Bovendien: ravissante zuren.

Decanter, James Lawther MW – Going Green – 91 « Old-vine Carignan with a little Grenache and Mourvèdre. Fine rather than powerful. Dark fruit, herbal notes. Tangy freshness with refined texture and a saline finish. Drink 2019-2024 “

Jancis Robinson MW 17.5 (TC) Tasted 2022-09-02 « Peppery, and beginning to turn malty-savoury and caramelised on the nose. The fruit, though, is still sweet and juicy, pure, with wild-plum freshness and that chiffon-like translucency that is the signature of Belle Lurette. The tannins have diffused into the fruit, giving the fruit itself a sense of worn-smooth-craggy texture and a spicy warmth. Garrigue fans out and fills the finish. Still fresh and with plenty of life ahead of it. (TC) 2019-2025 17 (JR) Tasted 2017-07-31 “Light crimson. Sweet and fresh on the nose (from 300 m elevation on schist terraces). Round tannins, marked acidity and a successful outcome. Long. Transparent and refreshing, Remarkably juicy for a Carignan. Bravo! »

Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France 2018, RVF 14,5 « le remarquable Belle Lurette issu de vieux carignans»

Jancis Robinson MW 16.5 (TC) “Smells like the mouth-watering meatiness of those crispy dark bits on roast beef and shiitake mushrooms cooking in a pan. Cooked damsons, dried redcurrants and lots of thyme. Cold black tea and dried hibiscus petals. The tang of sumac spice. The tannins are slender but drying, giving the wine a graceful, sinewy structure. More evident evolution and senescence on this vintage than on the 2015 and the “ (TC) 2016-2022

Jeb Dunnuck (TWA #224) 89 « Elegant, graceful, medium-bodied and lightly textured, it offers lots of savory cherry fruits, spice-box, dried flowers and subtle herbes de Provence-like aromas and flavors”

Gault & Millau automne 2017 Yohann Castaing “Nez pas encore totalement épanoui malgré un ressenti particulièrement impressionnant pas sa pureté, son dynamisme. Grain très fin, de beaux amers, de la minéralité (tension) et de belles notes de fruits noirs et d’épices. Un très beau carignan qui vieillira parfaitement ». 16.5

In Vino Veritas 2016 «Ah, la grâce du carignan de vieilles vignes de 80 ans sur schiste, quelle personnalité d’une douceur et d’une volupté languedocienne très éloignée des vins massifs et alcooleux des années 95/2000. Un nez délicieux de raisins mûrs, de groseilles, de cerises précède une bouche aux tannins veloutés et juteux, un toucher chatoyant, de la vivacité, de la minéralité, un fruit acidulé. Ces vieilles vignes, usées, sculptées ont été plantées depuis … belle lurette.

Michel Smith, les 5 du Vin « remarquable et très élégant Faugères Belle Lurette 2014 bien inspiré par les vieilles vignes de carignan sur schiste ».

Jancis Robinson MW 17.5 (TC) Tasted 2022-09-02 “Sappier and rounder; sweeter, even fresher fruit than the 2014. Still very alive. Menthol and spice. Folds and folds and folds of flavour. Tea leaves and rooibos, and an incredible mountain-herbs freshness. The tannins have deliquesced into the soul of the wine, becoming fine pencil sketches on the fragile tissues of fruit. Just so delicious and finely structured and such a long, long reach. This seems to have gained more and more finesse with age. (TC) 2016-2024

Jeb Dunnuck (TWA #218) 93+ “Belle Lurette sport an inky purple color to go with textbook Carignan plum, new leather, distilled herbs and licorice aromatics. Medium to full-bodied, with terrific purity, integrated acidity and ultra-fine tannin, it’s a great Faugères to enjoy”

Decanter 2017, Simon Woolf “Belle Lurette is a good example of how whole-bunch fermentation with some carbonic maceration can produce a lighter ,more accessible style… Brigitte Chevalier uses the technique to help achieve a more delicate, ‘feminine’ style. She’s a cautious advocate: ‘It provides a way to improve the aromatic complexity of the wines. The aromatic intensity is also increased – so much so that we should worry. Whole-bunch can’t produce miracles. It can even tend towards the banal by giving uniform aromatics to wine, and reducing the terroir expression.’

Michel Smith, Les 5 du Vin “Brigitte Chevalier a tenu parole, elle qui avait promis de me faire goûter une série de millésimes de sa cuvée « Belle lurette » qui accorde au Carignan d’altitude (exposé nord, excusez du peu…) la place qu’il mérite et qu’il avait probablement naguère dans les assemblages. Dans cette cuvée de Faugères, la part du Carignan tourne autour de 85 %. Si je commence par ce 2013, c’est parce qu’il m’a le plus étonné par sa construction autour d’une acidité fort présente et assez éclatante qui confère à ce vin une structure énorme. Les autres millésimes – à partir de 2011 – font preuve d’une étonnante régularité, parfois marqués par un joli soyeux, souvent dans la profondeur et la persistance, et toujours avec l’efficacité conférée par cette structure acide particulière au Carignan, sorte d’épine dorsale habillée par des tannins qui jouent dans le registre du cuir comme en 2014, 2015 et 2016 avec cependant une pointe de dureté dans ce dernier millésime lequel, en revanche, fait preuve d’un supplément de puissance, tandis que l’on a une séduisante finesse et une prometteuse prise de bouche avec le 2020 actuellement en vente. Jusqu’aux trois premiers millésimes de la cuvée entamée en 2011, les vins commencent à se boire.

Le Rouge & le Blanc Carignan « Notes acidulées florales et délicates. Bouche structurée, dans le prolongement du nez avec un joli jus tendu et facile à boire. De l’allonge. Un vin raffiné, d’une belle classe » 15

Jancis Robinson MW 16++ (RH) Blackcurrant, liquorice, leather. Incredibly savoury again – this seems a signature of the estate. Not heavy in body, but the fruit is almost impenetrable – needs ageing. (RH) 2018-2028

Jeb Dunnuck (TWA #212) 92 “it offers a floral, perfumed profile with notions of kirsch, raspberry, scrub brush and crushed flowers all emerging from the glass. Medium-bodied and layered on the palate, with a seamless, sexy texture and notable balance, it’s a rock star effort. I was blown away by these efforts from oenologist Brigitte Chevalier. Creating this domaine in 2006, she has a bevy of old vines located in the cooler, higher elevation and more northern portion of the appellation. She fashions ripe, yet polished and beautifully balanced wines that savvy readers need to seek out!

Jancis Robinson MW 18 (TC) Tasted 2022-07-12 « Gorgeous. Is this really an 11-year-old Languedoc wine? It smells of bresaola. One sip and my mouth fills, literally fills, with fine white pepper. The fruit is sweet and remarkably fresh for its age – earlier today I was wandering through our heat-hazed orchard, dry golden-brown hay grass up to my waist, and found some blackcurrants left on the bush that we’d neglected to pick… I idly popped a few of those blackcurrants in my mouth. Hours later, I taste this wine and it tastes just like those blackcurrants. I keep coming back to it. This exquisitely beautiful wine has become exquisitely refined. A heart-breaker, in fact. This is a wine writing poetry in purpleblue ink into the corners of non time and non space where beauty trawls ever-finer tannins into a vault above your head and you know that these old vines are, one way or another, writing their memoirs. (TC) 2015-2035

The Morning Claret, Simon J Woolf “Belle Lurette Faugères 2011 is Brigitte’s equally subtle and delicious redux on Carignan. The fruit is intense, spicy and complex, but beautifully balanced. The vines are 70 years old.”