2010 Côtes du Rhône Villages, Monier, Massif d'Uchaux, St Estève d'Uchaux

2010 Côtes du Rhône Villages, Monier, Massif d'Uchaux, St Estève d'Uchaux

Product: 20108138321
 
2010 Côtes du Rhône Villages, Monier, Massif d'Uchaux, St Estève d'Uchaux

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Description

The Massif dUchaux covers 250 hectares of gentle hilly terrain just to the north of Orange. In Roman times the Via Agrippa snaked through its woody valleys and in 1290 its wines were sold through the community of Mondragon. Closer to the present, the wines were promoted to stand-alone village status in 2005 and are now recognised for both quality and value; the distinctive red sandstone soils, on a limestone bed-rock, inform the style which combines floral and red fruit aromas.

Both are pleasingly present in this example from the superb 2010 vintage. The Franois Monier is a 2/3 Grenache, 1/3 Syrah blend and has been matured for a year in cement, allowing full glorious expression to the ripe red-berried fruit, with its spicy backdrop and pure, fresh backdrop.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

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About this WINE

Ch. Saint Esteve d'Uchaux

Ch. Saint Esteve d'Uchaux

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Côtes du Rhône Villages

Côtes du Rhône Villages

A clear step up from basic Côtes du Rhône in terms of both quality and price, the Côtes du Rhône Villages appellation covers an area of 5,700 hectares entirely within the Southern Rhône. About 15 percent of the size of its generic counterpart, it offers mostly excellent, very good value wines from all three hues that are more serious, concentrated and interesting.

Red wines dominate, made up of a minimum 50 percent Grenache, at least 20 percent Syrah and Mourvèdre, and no more than 20 percent from 10 other named varieties. Out of 95 communes that are eligible to use the Villages name, the finest 18 of them have the right to append their village name, as long as the wine is exclusively from that commune. The classification is quite fluid though, with Gigondas, Vacqueyras, and Beaumes de Venise and Vinsobres and Rasteau having been upgraded to AOC status, and other villages like Massif d’Uchaux and Plan de Dieu being added.

Best enjoyed from two to 10 years of age, the best wines probably come from Cairanne and Sablet, but all are well worth a look. The whites are rapidly improving and are delicious in their first three years. Rosé wines are made from the same cépage as the reds and are usually very good.

Recommended Producers: Chapoton, Domaine Cros de la Mûre, La Soumade

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Southern Rhône Blend

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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