88 David Schildknecht - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"The Virgile 2006 Costieres de Nimes – a tank-rendered blend of Syrah with 30% Grenache and 10% Mourvedre - offers scents and flavors of black cherry and black raspberry, bitter herbal concentrate (favoring licorice and juniper) and cocoa powder. The agents report that this has been 'lightly fined and filtered,' and given the sheer thickness of what remained, I cannot help but wonder what it was like before that. In truth, there is still a lot of tannin lurking beneath, but it is neither coarse nor obtrusive. The finish of black fruits and herbal concentrate is audaciously intense, and while I would not look for refinement to emerge, it would be fascinating to follow this for a couple of years. The estate of Serge and Thierry Baret was new to me, and is now yet one more name to add to the list of burgeoning talent in the Costieres de Nimes, a region that has officially been bounced back and forth between the Rhone and Languedoc (perhaps in part because both would claim it)."