2016 Côtes du Rhône Villages, Visan, Les Grains Sauvages, Dom. Dieu-le-Fit
About this WINE
Remi Pouizin
Rémi and Geraldine Pouizin of Domaine Dieu-le-Fit are at the top of their game. Demeter accredited from 2016, we are delighted to be working with them for our Own Selection Côtes du Rhône. Rémi inherited most of his vineyards from the property known as Fourmente, where he built his own winery. Their wines are given branded names as they are essentially assembled from different plots. Red clay and pudding stones are at the lower altitudes, then “saffre” (sandstone) is just above the village itself. The more varied garrigue-strewn soils sit on the plateau heading in the direction of Rasteau.
Working organically is part of Rémi’s family philosophy; his grandparents grew fruit and vegetables organically in the 1960s. Rémi insists, “If I can drink a product, I am happy to put it on my vines. If it would be poisonous to me, it doesn’t go anywhere near them.” Clearly, there is honesty and integrity in everything the couple does.
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
There is more red clay underneath these vines,
85 percent of which are Grenache, the balancing
Mourvèdre is grown in a vineyard which is surrounded
by the eponymous scrub. The felicitous blend of soils
and natural environment brings out the fresher more
linear side to Grenache, and complements it with
sooty spicy complexity, courtesy of the Mourvèdre.
Concentration and firm tannins do not seem to
contradict an engaging almost ethereal character, very
typical of this grower. Drink 2019-2023.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
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