About this WINE
Domaine Puech Chaud
Réné Rostaing is known the world over as the magician of Côte Rôtie; his single vineyard La Landonne being one of the most sought-after wines in the Rhône Valley.
After extensive geological enquiry, he has identified this cool enclave in the Languedoc, its location not far from Nîmes, its name referring to a specifically benevolent microclimate on the gentle slope where the vines lie.
With the white wine, Réné aspires to marry local colour and warmth to the elegant style for which he is famous. Domaine Puech Chaud Blanc is a happy alliance of the fashionable Italian grape Vermentino ( known locally as Rolle), the aromatic Viognier and the indigenous Grenache Blanc.
In Domaine Puech Chaud Rouge Syrah predominates, with 15% Mourvèdre and 10% Grenache.
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
René Rostaing’s Midi experiment has now established a reputation so as to no longer merit putative experimental status. Nonetheless the project is not without imagination; he has selected hot dry plots, 15 km from Nîmes in an easterly direction, the sedimentary soils of which have been planted with Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, with the first named making up 70% of the blend, the others sharing the balance.
Old oak elevage and a powerful vintage have yielded a wine with aromatic harmony (violets and black fruits), excellent concentration and a harmonious, generous mouth-feel.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer
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