Domaine Lanceyre’s 2007 Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Vieilles Vignes – from Syrah with 35% Grenache, tasted assembled from tank – offers a marrow-like sweet, meaty savor as well as stone and graphite minerality to complement its abundance of rich, fresh black raspberry, plum, and cherry. This superb value offers abundant herbal inner-mouth aromatics as well, and clings with invigorating vivacity and intriguing complexity. I would feel comfortable holding it for 4-6 years. For a note on the impressive 2006 Vieilles Vignes bottling, consult issue 178. I cannot pretend that my palate agrees with those of Durand and Valentin as to the virtues of the barrel regimen employed for the estate’s ostensibly top, Syrah-dominated – “Grande” – cuvee ,which includes a bit of Mourvedre as well as Grenache. Bernard Durand and Regis Valentin continue to render distinctively delicious wines that offer outstanding value of a sort not always to be found in the increasingly renowned Pic Saint-Loup sub-appellation.Imported by Hand Picked Selections, Warrenton, VA; tel. (540) 347 9400