Mas de Lavail is located in sunny and dry Languedoc-Roussillon, between the Mountains of the Pyrenées and Corbières, in a little town named Maury. People of this region are very proud of their Catalan national heritage, where they speak their own language, deeply influenced by the Spanish culture. Its vignerons work hard in the vineyards, using leaf-pulling and hand-picking to extract wines of great concentration and flavor from the fertile terroir. Nicolas Battle (pronounced "buy") is a young winemaker of great talent and the fifth generation of his family to practice this noble profession. Together with his cousin, Lionel Lavail, they work this new domain of fantastic potential, with very old vines averaging 80+ years of age planted to the formidable black schist soils of this part of the Languedoc-Roussillon. Their 2007 vintage Mas Lavail Carignan Vieilles Vignes Terre d'Ardoise, produced from 100% old vines Carignan, is a shimmering garnet in color; at once both light and lively, warm and round, plump, ripe, juicy and succulent, with smooth rounded tannins and grapey fresh flavors that just plain deliciously please.

Château de Sérame is one of the oldest estates in the Languedoc. It stands on the former Roman camp of Caesarus and subsequently was inhabited during the Carolingian age. It was purchased in 1804 by the Exéa family, who have continuously owned the property since. Château de Sérame is located in the heart of the Languedoc at Lézignan-Corbières, where it benefits from a remarkably rich terroir. Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, in The World Atlas of Wine, refer to Corbières as an area of "geological chaos," where clay-limestone plateaus and hillsides alternate with soils of fine gravel, shale and large pebbles, an area under the influence of both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and where, along with ideal exposure to the sun, there is the possibility for the production of fine wine. This 2006 vintage Château de Sérame Corbières is produced from 57% Syrah, 33% Carignane and 10% Grenache grapes grown in this very situation. Glaring crimson red in color with almost risqué aromas suggesting a wine both wild and potent; bold and assertive on the tongue, almost brash, with satisfying depth of flavors at once of earth, bramble, berries and spice. This one’ll warm them cockles come the cold of winter.