Cesar Rouge 2020, Domaine Roche Audran

A black cherry confit nose with notes of strawberry and garrigue herbs. The palate is full bodied with ample fruits and a lovely maturity of bramble fruits. The structure is soft and elegant and the finish is persistent and of strawberry coulis. Ripe, but present tannins will ensure a long life.  A must have for any Rhone wine enthusiast! (2020-14% abv)

Vincent Rochette follows the bio-dynamic calendar for his vineyard work. The soil has been re-invigorated using bio-dynamic powders and the terroir has once again been allowed to express itself. Healthy grapes are the norm here and triage is a thing of the past. Each parcel is picked and vinified separately. Grapes are de-stalked and lightly crushed, followed by a cold pre-fermentation maceration in a mixture of concrete and conical wooden vats. Only indigenous yeasts are used and a two week alcoholic fermentation is accompanied by stamping down of the cap (pigeage), pumping over (remontage) and juice separation (delestage). After a further 60 days, the grapes are then pressed. For the elevage 225 litre French oak barrels are used. Each parcel is aged separately for 12 months and then the blending (assemblage) is carried out from the very best of the Buisson parcels.

The highly motivated and energetic Vincent Rochette has made a name for himself with his superbly sculpted Visan and Cotes du Rhones. He owns land in both the communes of Visan and Buisson and this diversity of terroirs largely explains the extraordinary complexity in his wines. Very careful selection is carried out in the vineyards and in the winery and there is minimum intervention during the fermentation and ageing processes. Vincent has made the conversion to a truly bio-dynamic vineyard over a number of years and all the work that he has put in can clearly be seen in the sheer purity of his wines. A walk in the vineyard block behind the winery reveals a fantastic eco-system where wildlife, insects, flowers and fauna, that had long disappeared, have returned in abundance. This is indeed one of the 'happiest' vineyards that we have ever visited!

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Game, Duck, Beef, Cheese

Dry

Medium Bodied

Dense Red

Grenache

Southern Rhone

Domaine Roche Audran

2020

Contains Sulphites