A Bit of Age on Domaine de Nizas Le Clos

This aged Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre blend was deep garnet in color with medium aromas of red cherry, cranberry, raspberry, clove, black pepper, black cherry, blueberry, cacao, tar, leather, prune, and date.

On the palate, it was dry with medium acidity, velvety tannin, and body, high alcohol, and medium(+) flavor intensity and finish. We had flavor notes of black cherry, blueberry, blackberry, clove, cacao, black pepper, leather, cedar, dried leaves, balsamic vinegar, and dried fig.

This bottle hit us with an impressive spread of flavors, ranging from primary fruit to tertiary notes; however, felt slightly out of balance, with the alcohol trending a bit higher relative to the acidity and other components. This may have been from it’s decade-plus of aging, or simply a characteristic of the wine. As such, while this one did have a fair bit of fresh fruit left in it, we would be hesitant on aging it much longer.

GSM Food Pairing – Mushroom Polenta with Truffle

We paired this aged GSM blend with a mushroom polenta topped with truffle oil and felt like it brought out more blueberry, caramel, cacao, and vanilla notes plus other baking spice undertones. The pairing helped the wine feel very smooth, and overall was a nice pairing- particularly for the heightened baking spice notes along with cacao.

Score: 3.5 / 5

We’d buy a glass of this one, and another bottle with some age.

Overall, it is always a treat to find an aged bottle in the wild, and this GSM blend from Languedoc certainly hit is with a wealth of flavors that we were hoping for. While we’re not quite sure if this bottle was getting just past its peak, we have to admit, if we found another aged bottle in the wild, we wouldn’t hesitate to pick up another.

Domaine de Nizas is located at Domaine de Nizas 1 Cours National 34230 Usclas-d’Hérault in France. We purchased this bottle locally and enjoyed it in 2024. At the time of publication, a newer vintage was available on Wine.com.