Le Mazel
Cuvée Larmande 2023

  • Region Valvignères, Ardèche, France
  • Grapes Syrah
  • Vineyard Organic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
  • ABV 13%
  • Size 750ml

Quantity

About the Wine

Full of delicious, dark blackcurrant fruit, this is 100% Syrah given a twelve-day, whole-bunch carbonic maceration before being pressed back into tank. This had completed fermentation 7 months later and was bottled with no additions in spring 2023.

Another lifted and vibrant expression of the varietal. Nicely fruit-forward this vintage, the palate is all salty black olive and blackcurrant, with some saline, savoury bitters and the line of acidity is taut with energetic vim. Mazel never fail to surprise and this is a seriously approachable vintage of Larmande, drinking so well now, with a long life ahead.

About Le Mazel

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.

Find out more about Le Mazel

More from Le Mazel

Le Mazel
Cuvée Larmande 2011

Those who have had the experience know that, whilst humbly priced, Mazel wines age with aplomb. We're happy to offer a small quantity of the above Syrah cuvee with well over a decade under its belt. Here we start to see the youthful fruit fall away into something more chiseled and defined. Find out more.

  • Region Valvignères, Ardèche, France
  • Grapes Syrah
  • Vineyard Organic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
£42

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Le Mazel
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  • Region Valvignères, Ardèche, France
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  • Vineyard Organic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
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  • Region Valvignères, Ardèche, France
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  • Vineyard Organic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
£55

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Le Mazel
Cuvée Raoul 2023

Vivid ruby Carignan and another delightfully light, luminous vintage, already to drinking superbly in its youth. Fruit is freshly crushed black and red cherry with a herbal lilt of wild fennel garrigue and light balsamic twang, towards a lovely sense of limestone minerals in the finish. Truly compelling wine, in the sense that once opened a bottle does not last for long! Find out more.

  • Region Valvignères, Ardèche, France
  • Grapes Carignan
  • Vineyard Organic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
£23.50

Quantity

Le Mazel
Cuvée Raoul 2023 MAGNUM

Vivid ruby Carignan and another delightfully light, luminous vintage, already to drinking superbly in its youth. Fruit is freshly crushed black and red cherry with a herbal lilt of wild fennel garrigue and light balsamic twang, towards a lovely sense of limestone minerals in the finish. Truly compelling wine, in the sense that once opened a bottle does not last for long! Find out more.

  • Region Valvignères, Ardèche, France
  • Grapes Carignan
  • Vineyard Organic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
£51.50

Quantity