Exploring Lirac (6) Domaine Chantepierre/Les Deux Pins
This is a sizeable Lirac domaine of 70 hectares of vines, owned by the Paly family. We met with Jean-François and Simona, and toured round in their old wartime Willys Jeep, as well as tasting the wines.
They have mostly pebble terroir: in Lirac this means pebbles and sandy clay, with no strata like those found in Chateauneuf. In the Quaternary period the snow melt took rocks from the alps and deposited them here. The pebbly terroirs give wines with more structure and tannin, he says.
They make their wines from 25 hectares of Lirac vineyard, but sell many of their grapes to the cooperative. They don’t use herbicide, but they aren’t organic.
They make their wines using a custom crush facility in the cooperative. They started in 2015 with 130 bottles, then grew this to 3000 bottles in 2022, and in 2023 doubled this to 6000 bottles.
A short film:
THE WINES
Les Deux Pins Lirac Rouge 2023 (sample 1)
Sweetly aromatic and fresh with bright fruit and some silkiness. This is two plots, and just Grenache in stainless steel. Some fine green notes. Sweet fruit but shows precision with a peppery edge.
Les Deux Pins Lirac Rouge 2023 (sample 2)
Grenache (the same wine) in 400 litre Damy barrels, two years old. Fresh red fruits with more structure and some grip. Notes of meat and olive. Has high CO2 at the moment. 92/100
Les Deux Pins Lirac Rouge 2023 (sample 3)
Syrah in new Taransaud 500 litre barrel. Grippy, dense and intense with nice weight. Firm with some tarry notes, and a bit of pepper. Serious, with oak showing. 93/100
Domaine Chantepierre Lirac Rouge 2021
15% alcohol. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre in stainless steel. There’s freshness and texture here with a core of cherry and raspberry fruit with fine grained tannins. Has nice silkiness to the texture. 93/100
Les Deux Pins Lirac Rouge 2022
80% Syrah, 20% Grenache, raised in barrels of 225, 400 and 500 litres. Powerful and dense with some spicy oak making its presence felt. This adds some savoury structure to the sweet cherry and plum fruit. Has potential for development but closed now. 92/100
Les Secrets des Deux Pins Lirac Rouge 2022
One barrel was a mistake in 2021 – it was a new Damy and he meant to put Shiraz in and ended up putting Grenache in – so he decided to bottle it separately. 200 bottle sold out quickly. So the error was repeated in 2022! Spicy and aromatic with cedar, tar and sweet black fruits. The palate has a tarry, spicy edge with sweet black cherry and berry fruits as well as some herbs. There’s elegance, but also quite a bit of oak. Give this time. 93/100
DOMAINE CHANTEPIERRE LES 2 PINS
Route de la Commanderie, 30126 Tavel
+33 (0)6 77 15 07 23
EXPLORING LIRAC
