Another great outcome from the difficult 2021 vintage at Domaine du Mazel. This is 100% Syrah given a ten-day, whole-bunch carbonic maceration before being pressed back into tank. This had completed fermentation 6 months later, rather than in the usual 2 years, so was bottled early with no additions, in spring 2022.
As such, it's a more lifted and vibrant expression than previous vintages. There is an underlying, almost peat-y smokiness to the nose, but balanced with a pastel perfume that hits the top notes. The palate is all salty black olive and blackcurrant, with some deeply savoury bitters and the line of acidity is taut with energetic vim. Mazel never fail to surprise and this is one of their most beguiling Syrahs yet.
Gérald Oustric is one of a certain generation of winemakers whom experienced a shared epiphany after meeting with Marcel Lapierre during the 80s. At the time he was working the family vineyards in Valvignères, a village in the south of the Ardèche, alongside his father. Each vintage all of the fruit was sold to the local co-operative. It was after this fateful meeting with Lapierre that Gerald realised there was another way to tend the vines and turn the resulting grapes into wine, and by the late 90s he had pulled out of the co-op, converted the domaine to certified organic and, in the wake of the infamous ‘gang of four’ that had inspired him, began to realise his vision of making wine with no additions at all. He joined forces with his sister Jocelyne, and Le Mazel was born.
Over 20 years later they now farm 19 hectares, with a portion leased out to any number of the other emergent winemakers in the region. Gérald is well-regarded for being the guiding force in helping many of these younger producers get set up by selling them grapes, loaning out vineyards, lending them equipment or letting them make their wine in his cellars. There is a healthy, collaborative spirit in the air around these parts but, ever-humble, Gérald's work is often seen after the likes of Anders Frederik Steen, Sylvain Bock, Daniel Sage and Andrea Calek, all of whom he has lent a helping hand to along the way.
The wines themselves are vital, wild-edged and nourishing, and clearly speak of the mistral-swept valley from which they hail. Mazel are notorious for embracing the annual variations that can occur when making wine without heavy manipulations or additions, and as such his staple of regular cuvées can express themselves completely differently from year to year. Each vintage is a new part of a bigger story.
