Les Mouliniers - AOC St Chinian

Having seen the price of this in the local wine merchant, (25 Euros for the top cuvee) I decided to head out and give this a try - it has to be said that I went on my own and whilst the lady on duty was friendly enough I wouldn't go so far as to put this in one of the top experiences of the holiday - though this might have had something to do with me being on my own!
Starting with the 50% Tradition Rouge 2004 - a simple red fruit wine with hints of aniseed with a slightly closed mouth feel and some fresh acidity. The 70% Syrah, Les Sigillaires 2002 had vanilla notes, a touch of spice and some lovely forest fruit aromas - in the mouth it was .... narrow in the mouth - fine acidity and freshness giving way to a slightly one dimensional wine - with just hints of liquorice on the palate. (Some wines are big fat wines some are narrow and clean - this fits the latter category.)
The final wine tasted was Les Terrasses Grille's 2000 - the top cuvee from the estate again made from 70% Syrah with 50% aged in 1 year old oak and 50% in new oak (French of course!) a deep mahogany coloured wine, complex and open with cassis and pepper aromas. However despite being 6 years old it was still tannic (that'll be Syrah for you then!) but had good fresh acidity, liquorice flavours in abundance with black fruit and oak showing well. My issue with this winery was that I was told the red wines ought to be served at 14 degrees, which given it was seriously hot outside one could kind of understand - however what it meant was that the wines were far too closed and didn't allow their undoubted talents and complexity to shine through - I would really love to taste these again at 18 degrees - and maybe I'd be proven wrong and they'd be fat and flabby - but to my mind unless they work out how best to serve their wines they won't make the big impact they're hoping for. The terroir around the domaine is definately good enough and the winemaking is there so it's a shame they've made a decision and are sticking to it rather than perhaps allowing wines to be tasted at both temperatures in order to either make or break the point. Rant over - - stick with nicer wines!