Les Païssels is a savoury, full-bodied red wine from the winery Domaine de Païssels, located in Saint-Chinian in southern France. Here we have a deep ruby coloured wine, rich in aromas and flavours of black cherries, black berries and black currant with hints of herbs, chocolate, cloves and leather. The pallet is creamy with smooth, silky tannins creating a pleasant texture and a long finish. It is a wine with great personality and charm and is just a pure delight. We recommend opening the bottle well in advance and serve the wine at 17-18 ° C. Take your time and enjoy this delicious wine in a large wine glass over several hours, to experience how it evolves with time. Les Païssels is also a delicious wine to pair with food. It goes very well with a spicy stew, savoury dishes with for instance red meat or lamb served with oven baked vegetables and a rich sauce, or simply serve the wine with charcuterie and hard cheese. 
 
Domaine des Païssels is the winery and love child of the couple Marie Toussaint and Vivien Roussignol, who are agricultural engineers and oenologists. After many years of working in wineries in several French regions as well as in California and Australia, they returned to Saint-Chinian to create their own winery. They started by cultivating an old vineyard of only one single hectare which they had inherited from Vivien's grandfather in 2011. Today they cultivate 12 hectares of vineyards of goblet trained vines that are 30-100 years old of local grape varieties, including many rare varieties you have never heard of. They are passionate about preserving lost and forgotten grape varieties, for instance the green grape variety Gibi. Marie and Vivien take pride in farming organically with great care for their vines and respect of nature, and thus do not utilize any herbicides or chemical fertilizers. They have also installed beehives around the plots to protect biodiversity. 
 
The name “Les Païssels” is the local name for the small chestnut stakes which are traditionally used to support young vines while they are being cut and grown into the Goblet shape, also called bush vines. Marie and Vivien chose this name for their first vintage, and after a few years it also became the name of the domain.