Vinsobres, Rouanne et Les Crottes, Château de Rouanne 2021
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Why this wine
Rouanne et Les Crottes is the parcel Louis Barruol singles out as showing the estate at its best whatever the year, and it has been under vine since Gallo-Roman times. Grenache this round is usually jammy; here twelve months in old Burgundy casks and a cool hillside keep it fresh and saline instead. A cru Rhône bottled from one named site.
At a glance
- Grape
- Grenache
- Region
- Rhône Valley, France
- Alcohol
- 15.50%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Poultry & Pork, Cheese
How it tastes
Layers of blackberry fruit with spicy gingerbread and graphite behind them, closing on the salinity that is this estate's signature. Medium-bodied and round, with gentle acidity and fine, supple tannins that carry the alcohol without showing it. Grenache 100%.
The producer
Château de Rouanne is a historic estate in Vinsobres in the Rhône Valley, bought in 2019 by Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme, who is restoring the château and reviving its vineyard. Its 62 contiguous hectares of red clay, limestone marl and sand were planted between 1955 and 1975 to a massal selection of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, and the lieu-dit of Rouanne et Les Crottes — a Gallo-Roman site marked on the 17th-century Cassini maps — sits on a gently rolling clay slope with a south-eastern aspect, where the clay holds just enough water, the crop ripens steadily rather than fast, and rot is unknown. The grapes were fermented whole-cluster in concrete tanks with wild yeast, aged twelve months in a mix of Burgundy casks and demi-muids of which 15% were new, 50% second passage and 35% third, and bottled without fining or filtration. 2021 was a cold, late year, but Vinsobres escaped the spring frost on its hillsides, and the wine has the balance and ethereal elegance of a cool vintage rather than the lightness the year is usually credited with.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16 to 18°C. Good with slow-roast shoulder of lamb, herb-roasted chicken, pork belly with fennel, or a mature Comté. Drinking now and through to about 2031; half an hour in a decanter is enough. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.