Chateau d'Oupia 'Les Heretiques' 2022 750ml

FRANCE : LANGUEDOC : IGP PAYS D'HERAULT

SUSTAINABLE : Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault

MED-BODIED, DARK CHERRY, RED PLUM, GARRIGUE, SPICE, NO OAK

The name and label come from the region's darkest chapter — the Cathars, a pacifist Christian sect that occupied these hillsides until Pope Innocent III ordered their massacre in 1208. The label is a celestial map of the night sky, designed by Joe Dressner. The wine behind it comes from Château d'Oupia, a family estate in the Minervois where Marie-Pierre Iché has carried on her father André's work since his death in 2007, farming clay-limestone hillsides with vine parcels averaging 40 years of age — some Carignan blocks well over a century old.

The 2022 vintage reformulated the classic blend — once 90% Carignan — into a Syrah-dominant wine: 50% Syrah, 25% Grenache, 15% Carignan, 10% Cinsault. Syrah and Grenache are destemmed and macerated in concrete; the Carignan and Cinsault go in whole-cluster carbonic in steel tanks — two tracks that give the wine structure from one side and a bright, fresh cherry character from the other.

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