About this WINE
Domaine de l'Espigouette
Domaine de l'Espigouette produces benchmark Côtes du Rhônes from its 20 hectares of vineyards near Violes in the heart of the Southern Rhône. Most of the vineyards are located on the vast open space of the plan de Dieu. Bernard Latour started working with his father Edmond in the 1980s and now runs the property on his own.
The Côtes du Rhône is produced from a blend of 75% Grenache with the remaining 25% being a mix of Carignan, Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault. The wine is vinified traditionally and is matured in oak foudres for 6 months before being bottled. This is a first class property making balanced, full flavoured, rich yet traditionally made Côtes du Rhône which represent a benchmark for price and quality in this fascinating region.
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.
Buying options
Add to wishlist
Description
From the evocatively named, almost (at times) luminous limestone plain, newly promoted within the Rhône hierarchy Plan de Dieu, this is a powerful and spicy Côtes du Rhône Village wine blend with notes of forest floor then black plumy fruit, rounded off by a powerful savoury finish.
L’Espigouette have renovated their chai and added temperature controlled vats, which perhaps serve to give greater definition and purity to a family of wines which do not lack for power and Mediterranean warmth. Bernard Latour is one of the most respected vignerons in the Valley; tasting these wines, it is not difficult to understand why…
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)
wine at a glance
Delivery and quality guarantee