SAINT SATURNIN, France, September 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Wine Advocate on La Pèira:

"as profoundly delicious as all but a handful of crus rendered anywhere in France"

"need not fear comparison with any of the world's wine icons"

Issue #196 of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate saw the publication award its highest rating over the entire Languedoc-Roussillon region for the 2009 vintage to La Pèira - a small wine domaine in the Terrasses du Larzac appellation.

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David Schildknecht of the Wine Advocate names the domaine as one of the greatest of its region and among France's finest, producing wines: "as profoundly delicious as all but a handful of crus rendered anywhere in France".

La Pèira 2008 Vintage

Alongside the pioneering Mas Jullien, the La Pèira 2008 led the Advocate's Terrasses du Larzac 2008 appraisal, exceeding assessments of venerable producers such as Grange de Peres and Daumas Gassac (two Vin des Pays of the area).

On the La Pèira 2008: "Bears some resemblance to a top-notch Medoc"

On the Las Flors de la Pèira 2008: "I have remarked before on the Pomerol-like aspects of this cuvee...if one is to stick with that simile in this vintage, it could only be Lafleur rather than a Merlot-dominated Châteaux that one had in mind."

La Pèira 2007 Vintage

On the Domaine's La Pèira 2007, of which the Wine Advocate Issue #183 claimed: "This wine will ring changes on your palate for a decade, I predict, and will enter that select - though rapidly expanding - elite of Languedoc wines that need not fear comparison with any of the world's wine icons", it was noted, "how well the sense of energy, delineation, and levity that they had conveyed in barrel was captured in bottle", and the wine, "consistent with my stellar issue 183 expectations".

While some distance from being the regions most well-known domaine - that sobriquet belonging to the region's Mas de Daumas Gassac, dubbed in the early 80s, 'a Lafite in the Languedoc' (Gault & Millau), and a 'Grand Cru of the Midi' (Hugh Johnson) - the wines of La Pèira are the most consistently highest rated in the Wine Advocate's history of reviewing the Languedoc region.

Not that praise is restricted to that publication.

• Jeb Dunnuck's The Rhone Report, had the wine as the top red of the Languedoc-Roussillion - alongside Gauby's Muntada, and of the South of France, stating:  "Easily one of the top wines of the region (and I?ll gladly include all of the southern Rhône in that comparison)."

• Jay McInerney writing in the Wall Street Journalof the La Pèira 2007, drew comparisons to legendary 100 point wines such as the 1989 La Mission Haut-Brion,  the 1990 Henri Bonneau Reserve des Célestins, and the ("out of this world" Antonio Galloni) 2004 Fattoria Galardi Terra di Lavoro.

• Manfred Krankl of Sine Qua Non, the celebrated winemaker, noted of it: "It has exactly what I cherish in a wine and what I strive for with my own wines".

• In addition, the wine made an appearance in CellarTracker's top-rated wines for 2010 between the Haut Brion 1989 and Chateau Margaux 1990 - the only wine of its region to feature.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the wines have won acclaim from a diverse range of commentators:

• Gary Vaynerchuk: "The flagship wine from this new venture is easily going to be the next great global cult wine. Think Clos Erasmus or Masseto" - 99/100 La Pèira 2005.

• Andrew Jefford: "I try to avoid the kind of macho superlatives which can devalue the currency of wine criticism, but the efforts which the team at La Pèira have made with the 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages really did 'blow me away.'"

• Jancis Robinson: "Very fine and polished. Full of pleasure: sweet start and then a dry finish. I'd love to see this alongside other serious Syrahs"  17.5/20 JR on the La Pèira 2006 | "Sleek and refined and smells as though it may be a little austere and claret-like on the palate but in fact it is hugely seductive and rich and glamorous" 17.5/20 JR - on the La Pèira 2007.

• Rene Gabriel - Weinwisser: "this spectacular South of France wine" 19/20 drink - 2020

Terrasses du Larzac

The domaine's Terrasses du Larzac appellation was judged Bettane and Desseauve's French Appellation of the Year in 2011, who noted: "This sector very much deserves a status apart. A terroir. A real one."

While the Terrasses du Larzac appellation (for red wines only) is relatively recent, the domaine's flagship wine La Pèira is grown on the lieu-dit of the Bois de Pauliau - which unusually for the region has been designated AOC since 1948, as the most northerly zone of the white Clairette.

Nearby the domaine - and still in the Clairette AOC - France's oldest winery (10AD) was discovered (Link: Decanter July 2007). Clairette itself is a continuation of white wine production in the region dating from at least 77-79 AD when Pliny the Elder named the whites of Baeterrae (Beziers) along with the resinous reds of Vienne as the only two wines of exception from what is now France.

La Pèira is owned by composer Rob Dougan and lawyer Karine Ahton, working with winemaker Jeremie Depierre (whose experience includes stints at Château Giraud, and Château Margaux). The team took responsibility in 2004 with the openly avowed intention of producing wines that matched in quality the region's great history as France's oldest viticultural region.

It seems with some success.

To mark the occasion of the domain's first vertical tasting, hosted by Berry Bros. & Rudd

(Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant), Berry's Simon Field MW noted that La Pèira is, "now recognised as one of the very top wines in France."

David Schildknecht Issue #196 Wine Advocate report closes:

"[La Pèira] is broadcasting the message that this region's soils and old vines harbor abundant latent grandeur."

For additional information contact or visit:
La Peira ( http://lapeira.wordpress.com )
Robert Dougan (UK) : +44-(0)7734-103988 or roth@aol.com
Jeremie Depierre (France) : +33-(0)4 67-44-79-48 or dejerpierre@yahoo.com

SOURCE La Peira