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.
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Description
The preternaturally idyllic vineyards in the foothills the Massif des Maures sing a Provencal song which recalls Pagnol and Cezanne, with finely-tuned indolence and gentle appreciation of the finer things that nature can offer. Vigneron Julian Faulkner farms 24 hectares with sensitivity and organic rigour, coaxing evocative flavours of the garrigue from grape varieties that have been here for the longest time.
Hence the predominance of Cinsault in this cuvee, rounded out by 30% of Grenache and an added spicy note from 10% of Mourvèdre. A typically modest colour belies the wild berry concentration on the palate, cherries, forest floor and even hints of quince completing a very fine and not entirely impressionistic picture.
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Decanter Provence Rosé blind tasting last year; we voted this wine best in class and now I am delighted to introduce it to the BBR range.
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