2015 Rasteau, La Ponce, Domaine des Escaravailles

Domaine des Escaravailles

Located high in the hills behind the villages of Roaix and Rasteau, Escaravailles dates from 1953 and is now in the more than capable hands of Gilles Ferran, who has constructed a new cuverie and built the reputation of the domaine into one of the leading names in the region.

Escaravaille, for those of an inquisitive disposition, is the Occitane word for beetle (hence the labels) and also the term once used to describe the black-robed monks of the region, presumably from the Benedictine order. Gilles farms 40 hectares in Rasteau and 15 in Cairanne and his wines are justly celebrated as leading examples in both villages.

Côtes du Rhône

The Côtes du Rhône is a large wine appellation in France’s Rhône Valley. Producers here are permitted to make red, white and rosé wine, though red wines account for the majority of the production overall.

While technically the Côtes du Rhône covers both the Northern and Southern Rhône winegrowing areas, most of the production comes from the south. For red wines, Grenache is the most popular grape variety. It is often blended with Syrah and Mourvèdre – the three combined form the so-called GSM 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.