Wine Region: Rhône

(2025) Guigal's Côtes du Rhône has an unusually high proportion of Syrah for the appellation, around 50% along with Grenache and a touch of Mourvèdre. It spends 18 months in barrels, but those are very large, older 'foudres', many time the size of the standard 'barrique', and so there's no toasty influence as you  might expect from newer, smaller barrels. Already five years after vintage, it is dark purple and saturated in colour, the nose of bramble fruit, spices, pepper and cedar is inviting. In the mouth the tannins give a rustic grip, but there is plenty of supple and ripe fruit too. A hint of chocolate in the background, the spices and fresh acidity balancing, it is very drinkable now but it will also cellar for several years more and become smoother and softer. Watch the video for more information. As well as the stockists listed below, this is widely available.

(2024) From chalky-clay soils and low-yielding old vines, 'Les Six' in question are Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, with smaller components of Cinsault, Counoise and Carignan. It was fermented in large 6,000 litre, conical oak vats with natural yeasts and matured in vat for 10 months. It's an alluring and powerful wine, combining deep spice, blueberry and plum aromas with floral highlights and a glimpse of smoky bacon rind. Sweet and mouth-filling with 14.5% alcohol, there's a chewy robustness, firm and liquoricy tannins and good balancing acidity. Lovely, large-scaled stuff.

(2024) The blend here is Grenache Blanc, with Roussanne and Clairette, the wine fermented in 300 and 400 litre oak barrels, new and older wood, where it ages for six months before bottling. Nutty, creamy and chalky on the nose, it's a delicate but quite intense aroma, followed by a similarly yin and yang palate: there's no shortage of lightly toasty vanilla notes, and the fruit is ripe and mouth-filling, and yet this 13% alcohol wine has a lightness and finesse about it too.

(2024) A Syrah and Grenache blend, unoaked but given some time to mature in the cellar before release, this comes from the Unions des Vignerons des Côtes du Rhône co-operative. It has lift and vibrancy on the nose, kirsch and violet edging black fruits that are ripe and immediately suggest a juicy pastille quality. In the mouth there robust, sweet and chunky fruit, though the finish does tail off slightly into a slightly sharp astringency that just detracts from an otherwise enjoyable CdR.

(2024) Made by the les Vignerons d'Estezargues co-op, this Côtes Du Rhône is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc and Viognier weighing in at just 12.5% abv. There's a really pleasant Cox's pippin and lemon fruit character on the nose, both citrus fresh and with a bit of peachy ripeness, as well as creaminess/nuttiness, presumably from some lees ageing. In the mouth it has texture and a certain richness, the fruit tempered and understated, and yet that makes it so gastronomic and so versatile, with easy-drinking charm and yet the savouriness to make it broadly food friendly. A very useful little wine this.

(2024) Pouring as black as pitch, 15% of the final blend was whole-bunch fermented and the wine aged 14 months in barriques and larger barrels, with very little new wood. The floral lift is unmissable on the nose, with lirsch like and violet notes mingling with cracked peppercorn and a gentle gaminess. In the mouth it is slick and fruit-filled, a dark juiciness of ripe plums and berries. There's reall freshness here, not just from the well-judged cherry-skin tang of the acidity, but from a crunchy tannin framework the blends with the savoury fruit notes of the long finish.

(2023) A bright, crimson coloure Grenache-Syrah blend, with equally bright and forward aromas. Black cherry and plum, some tobacco-like spice. In the mouth the line of fruitiness persists, almost like black cherry jam, while the medium-bodied format and lick of decent acidity does tighten and freshen toward the spicy, moderately tannic, but balance finish.  

(2023) I once bought a lot of Costières du Nîmes, finding fabulous value for a Syrah-based red from the Rhône Valley, albeit a very southerly extension that borders the Camargue. It was also interesting to taste this £14, 14.5% alcohol Syrah immediately alongside a £14, 14.5% Syrah from the Barossa in Australia (The St Hallett 'Faith' 2020). This is immediately focused on bright fruit rather than barrel, buoyant with an almost Beaujolais-like edge. In the mouth there's plenty of sweet, ripe, blackberry fruit, but it is much more nimble than the Australian example, fresh cherry acidity and fine tannins presenting a harmonious if straightforward picture.

(2023) Mostly Grenache with 20% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre. Around 24 months in older oak barrels. Very intense black fruit, lots of spicy lift, cassis-like with pot-pouri characters. Massive sweetness of super-ripe fruit on the palate, very svelte and balanced by the creaminess of the tannins and the creamy acidity.

(2023) From Vaucluse in the southern Rhône Valley, this is a serious and structured rosé, though delicate in colour and aroma. Mostly Grenache, with some Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Rolle, vines grow at 550- 630-metres in the highest vineyard of the region. The vineyard is biodynamic, with an emphasis on maintaining the ecosystem, the hand-picked grapes double sorted and parcels vinified separately and around 25% is aged in barrel.  Attractively pale salmon/peach in colour, the nose is crammed with small, firm red berry fruit aromas, some lemon peel adding a suggestion of grip. On the palate the sheer fruit sweetness surprises, with lots of creamy-ripe berries, but there's a great salts and citrus core to this, and a long, very clear finish. It is a serious pink this, perhaps reminiscent of Domaine Tempier's Bandol for example.