About this WINE
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.
Buying options
Add to wishlist
Description
L’Argnée is a pre-phylloxera vineyard located in a 0.8-hectare plot in the south-west of the appellation, where sand dominates the soils more than elsewhere around the village. Indeed the plot boarders on the appellation of Sablet, which is known for its charming wines. Gigondas grit is not entirely forsaken however; the 2013 has a rich, dark chocolate core and decorative buttressing tannins.
Simon Field MW - Rhône Buyer
Deferential perhaps to what the Chapoutiers have achieved in the north with their single plots in Hermitage, the Perrins have segregated their top domaines into a ‘parcellaire’ category. Fully owned and farmed on the most rigorous organic principles, these exciting wines reflect the family’s faith in the villages of Vinsobres and Gigondas, the hillside locations of which chime with changing meteorological and climatic patterns.
wine at a glance
Delivery and quality guarantee