Southern Rhône Blend
Bottle
£8.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 89cs
This Côtes du Rhône has been specially made for us by Rémi Pouizin, the talented winemaker and owner of Domaine Dieu-le-Fit. Made with exclusively organic grapes, the wine displays real purity of dark-berried fruit, with subtle spicy notes and a black-olive twist that is so typical of this region. Its juicy fruit core is wonderfully balanced by refreshing acidity and crunchy, chalky tannins.
Fiona Hayes, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£11.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 117cs
Fiona Hayes, Wine Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd
Bottle 12 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£16.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle
£16.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle
£17.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 3cs
fruit sourced from ten parcels and dominated by the
75 percent of tank-aged Grenache, with Syrah and
Mourvèdre providing impressive support. Herbs,
cassis and a hint of eucalypt provide the backdrop
and the ensemble is enrobed and ennobled by ripe yet
finely poised tannins. Drink 2019-2021.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£17.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 6cs
Bottle
£18.45
Bottle 12 x 75cl 19cs
Fiona Hayes, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£24.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 19cs
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
L’Oratoire St Martin is run with great skill by brothers François and Frédéric Alary, both leading players in the movement to get Cairanne promoted to stand-alone Cru status, a movement which has recently been successful. The Alary family can trace its origins to the same decade as Berry Bros. & Rudd (1698 for us, 1692 for them) and now farms over 28 hectares, in the middle of which there was once, apparently, an oratory of some description. Low-yielding old vines are farmed biodynamically and the wines are vinified first in open-top fermenters and then in large foudres of 3,400 litres. The Alary brothers have risen to the challenges imposed by their de facto status as the leading producers in the recently created stand-alone Cairanne Cru. Nowhere is this more evident than in the supreme quality of their 2015 wines.
Bottle
£26.45
cuvée is packed full of dark berry fruit, sweet spice and herbs. It has, however, managed to maintain its freshness with good acidity intertwined with very fine dark tannins which make for a long cool finish. Drink now to 2024.
Bottle
£26.75
Bottle 12 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle
£27.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£28.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 35cs
Magnum
£30.95
Magnum 3 x 150cl 20cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 3cs
Drink 2019-2014.
Simon Field MW – Wine Buyer
Bottle
£47.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 10cs
Crau plateau, have gifted this blend which is made up
of 80 percent Grenache, 10 percent Mourvèdre, seven
percent Syrah and three percent Cinsault. Gentle
extraction after a modest cold soak has been followed
by eighteen months ageing, shared between vat and
350 litre casks, none of which are new. Benchmark
Châteauneuf aromas of black olive and the scrub cede
to a dark and savoury palate, hugely textured and
with layers of potential. The 2016 calling cards of pure
acidity and elegant tannins are both present and the
finish is imperious. Drink 2020-2028.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£48.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 8cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 7cs
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer
The forebears of sisters Sophie and Catherine Armenier have been making superb wines since 1344 it seems, maybe modifying their techniques a little along the way, but not too much. Biodynamic in all but the letter, they are based close to Beaucastel, but their plots, albeit more modest in total surface area, are more widely spaced over the appellation, with the most significant holdings in the areas around Courthézon and on the central Crau plateau. Low yields are key to the exceptional quality of the wines.
Bottle
£55.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 9cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 13cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
and if there was ever an illustration of Grenache
that is richly wrought, powerful and luxuriously
textured, yet still structured and not tipping over into
a decadent over-indulgence, then this would be it. The
herbal hints at the back of the palate ground the wine
magnificently; otherwise it’s an ethereal paean to
Provencal pleasure. Drink 2022-2028.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£60.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 36cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 5cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 2cs
This generosity pursues us all the very to the very long finish, its most engaging characteristics being the harmony of sweet fruit and savoury tannins and the weight in the mouth which marries Burgundian poise with Mediterranean warmth. An exceptional piece of work, the final blend of which is 50% Grenache and 30% Mourvèdre, the balance shared principally between Counoise and Vaccarèse.
Drink 2017-2025+
Simon Field MW Wine Buyer
Bottle
£62.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 5cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jeb Dunnuck - Wine Advocate Issue#215 Oct 2014
The Vieilles Vignes cuvée is made up of four different plots, each with its own distinctive terroir adding complexity to the ensemble. Most of the vines are from 1940 and 1965, with the youngest 20 percent from 1976 and 1993. The blend is 80 percent Grenache, 15 percent Mourvèdre, three percent Syrah and two percent unattributed. The wine is, as usual, superb, with an evocative garrigue nose and a palate which somehow marries a dark-chocolate plush with an almost ethereal, poetic finish.
Simon Field MW - Rhône Buyer
Christophe Sabon took us on the most fascinating vineyard tour in October 2014, underlining once again why he is held in such esteem in the appellation, and why Janasse make such widely praised wines across the spectrum. His sister, Isabelle, who operates the commercial side of the business, places 2013 stylistically between 2010 and 2011; she advises that the wines are a little more powerful than 2011 and perhaps a little rounder than 2010. Praise indeed, but a commentary that seems to be justified by the wines themselves.
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 4cs
Bottle
£73.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 10cs
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer
Just what is it that has made Clos des Papes the most sought-after address in this village? Vincent Avril has much to say, but the key parts of his exposition to me are exceptionally low yields, widely fragmented plots and a refusal to venerate Mammon by introducing of a series of deluxe cuvées. The wine is therefore the definitive statement of a village that is celebrated for blended complexity, deliciously ironic in a man who appears to have a distinctly Burgundian temperament (in a good sense, needless to say!). This aside, Vincent does not actually vinify by plot, but segregates three or four key blends in the March following harvest, blends which are marked by greater or lesser influence of the minority shareholding grapes and which therefore signal both the character of the vintage and the relative importance of Grenache in the ensemble.
although I infer that the Sabons might vote for the
Chaupin. Hard to choose really. I love the dense, richly
complex, nervously adolescent splendour of this wine,
its strutting potential and plush, unending generosity,
a long and happy future definitively secured. Drink
2023-2030+.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£80.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 25cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 30cs
Bottle
£90.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 15cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
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.