About this WINE
Chateau d'Aqueria
Jean Olivier purchased Château d'Aquéria in 1920 and began to reassemble the original vineyard parcels surrounding the château. It is one of 45 estates in the appellation, but one of only four properties in Tavel which is a domaine in the sense that its vineyards are contiguous as opposed to lying on holdings scattered throughout the appellation.
Château d'Aquéria is also the largest of the four, covering 244 acres of which 161 are planted in vines. Of these, 120 acres are under production in Tavel and the balance under production in red and white Lirac. Production in Tavel averages 24,500 cases annually, with that in Lirac Rouge and Blanc at 4,500 and 1,000 cases, respectively.
Château d'Aquéria is now owned by the son of Jean Olivier, Paul de Bez, and his sons Vincent and Bruno, who over the end of the 1980s renovated the vinification facilities and cellars with the addition of stainless steel fermentation tanks and exact temperature control over wines in storage
Southern Rhône Blend
The vast majority of wines from the Southern Rhône are blends. There are 5 main black varieties, although others are used and the most famous wine of the region, Châteauneuf du Pape, can be made from as many as 13 different varieties. Grenache is the most important grape in the southern Rhône - it contributes alcohol, warmth and gentle juicy fruit and is an ideal base wine in the blend. Plantings of Syrah in the southern Rhône have risen dramatically in the last decade and it is an increasingly important component in blends. It rarely attains the heights that it does in the North but adds colour, backbone, tannins and soft ripe fruit to the blend.
The much-maligned Carignan has been on the retreat recently but is still included in many blends - the best old vines can add colour, body and spicy fruits. Cinsault is also backtracking but, if yields are restricted, can produce moderately well-coloured wines adding pleasant-light fruit to red and rosé blends. Finally, Mourvèdre, a grape from Bandol on the Mediterranean coast, has recently become an increasingly significant component of Southern Rhône blends - it often struggles to ripen fully but can add acidity, ripe spicy berry fruits and hints of tobacco to blends.
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Description
Made from half Grenache and half Syrah and Mourvèdre, this is a richly coloured plummy wine, with winsome notes of dark chocolate, black tea and spice. Not dissimilar to the 2009 which is shaping up nicely.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer, February 2012
This large and imposing property is a worth flag bearer for the vines to the west of the river. The Château, for once appropriately named thus, bisects the appellations of Tavel and Lirac, the former with its sandier soils and famous for Rosé wines, the latter with more clay based soils, which make for very fine and robust red wines. Vincent de Bez is confident in the quality of his 2010s; the lower yields and smaller crop have produced wines of real class.
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