About this WINE
Domaine de la Monardiere
Damien Vache’s excellent Domaine de la Monardière is recognised as one of the very best in the Vacqueyras wine appellation. The distinctive clay and sand dominated soils give Vacqueyras an identity suitably different from that of near-neighbour Gigondas. The wines are perhaps a little more elegant here, with more focus on primary fruit and in the best examples, very finely etched tannins.
Les Deux Monardes is a blend of 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah, which has been aged for 12 months in concrete tanks and then bottled without fining or filtration.
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
Les Deux Monards is a blend of 70% Grenache, and 30% Syrah, its soils made up of a combination of clay and sand in the north of the appellation. The 2012 is feminine and gently lifted, with silky tannins and an elegant fruit profile. The template of fine Vacqueyras in other words.
Simon Field MW, Rhône Wine Buyer
My tasting this year with M. Vache turned out to be with M. Vache the elder, whose magnificent handlebar moustaches give very creditable competition to those of M. Férrigoule at Le Sang des Cailloux. Cleary such things are de rigueur for the best growers in the appellation. His range is exceptional and one day he (or his son) may even give us an allocation of his legendary white wine.
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