Dom. Saint Sylvestre Rouge 2020 Dom. Saint-Sylvestre

Get to know: Dom. Saint Sylvestre Rouge

Tasting Note

A seriously tasty Syrah blend from an excellent winemaker in Southern France. On the nose there are concentrated notes of cassis, tobacco and oak. Palate is rich in dark fruit with lots of character. There’s notes of prune, cranberry, blackberry jam fruit and savoury black pepper, star anise and leather. It’s big and full-bodied with great fruit while also having interesting texture and tannins. 

Try this with a rib of beef.

Kate Says

“I love Northern Rhone Syrah wines. This is a Syrah-led wine from the Languedoc and it is so pronounced, dense, ripe and powerful you could compare it to a Saint Joseph or top end Aussie Shiraz and Malbec, although it is definitely Old World in style with gritty tannins, spices and garrigue herbs. Try this with roast beef.”

Producer Info

The discovery of Vincent and Sophie Guizard’s vineyard lying at around 320 metres altitude in the wild and wooded hills to the northwest of Aniane is another source of excitement. The official appellation here may be the same as that for Mas de Chiméres, but the location and the soils are very different. This is a ‘terroir’ dominated by limestone and the ‘galets roulés’ that are so emblematic of Chateauneuf du Pape. Vincent learnt how to make wine by working for Olivier Julien, the man who remains for me the greatest winemaking talent of the Languedoc. It is clear that Vincent has also found the secret of achieving real delicacy as well as concentration without any trace of the rude rusticity that were the hallmark of most Languedoc wine as recently as a generation ago. The red wine is dominated by 70% syrah, with 20% grenache and 10% mourvedre. It is ready to drink when young but will surely age well too.