French Red Wines

A new wine from a new venture! Robin Althof from Costes Cirgues and his wife Imogen are making small batches of their own excellent wines from different parcels of grapes from friends' vineyards. Obviously they are organically farmed and sulphite free of course. 

This first wine is a blend of Syrah and Cinsault. Jane and I overnighted at the Chateau in September where we were treated to a full tasting of all their wines including some older vintages, prior to a wonderful meal out in the courtyard under the stars. All their wines are very good, but for some reason I was drawn back to this one repeatedly and it is the wine I chose to drink for the rest of the evening!

A superb single vineyard Syrah aged for 24 months in oak. Delicious! Big black cherry flavours with vanilla and a hint of white pepper. Perfectly balanced wine with good natural acidity. Superb.

"Excellence" is a very apt name for this wine. It is velvet smooth, with good body. Fruit and oak in harmony, with excellent natural acidity.

Domaine Myrac Diletante Rouge is a complex Syrah with flavours of dark chocolate followed by mint. Very smooth and balanced. Fully organic and very low in sulphur, this is a genuine artisan wine from this excellent organic family owned winery. This wine is lovely.

A lovely, smooth wine with savoury flavours and a long finish.

A big, smooth tasty blend. Mayrac took individual parcels from specific vineyards and blended them to produce this wine they are very proud of. It's great value and highly recommended.

A soft and smooth organic wine made from a unique grape which is a hybrid of Merlot and Petit Verdot.

A great organic oaked Pinot Noir from this family owned winery.

Decanter World Wine Awards 2016 - Platinum "Best Wine in Show (Rhone Style)"

Chateau Costes Cirgues is the top wine from this superb tiny family winery. All their wines are sulphite free and organically certtified. It consists of 80% Syrah, 20% Grenache hand harvested into small trays from another tiny 1.6 hectare vineyard. Gravity fed, concrete fermented then aged in French oak for 15 months prior to blending. Black fruit from the Grenache with some pepper from the Syrah. Big, rich and opulent. This is a superb wine.

Deep opaque purple in colour. This is a big wine and is best decanted as it really opens up given some time to breathe. Big black fruit flavours, velvet mouth feel and soft tannins.

Deep opaque ruby in colour. Swirl it round in the glass and the nose really opens up. Big damson and plum flavours in the mouth. Very smooth and balanced.

Montplaisir from Costes Cirgues is one of our best value sulphite free red wines. It's made in a fresh and fruity style to be enjoyed young. Merlot adds ripe red fruits and the Carignan was fermented under carbonic maceration where the grapes are not pressed but simply crushed by their own weight, which extracts only the free run juice and avoids extracting the tannins. 

This wine is great value and a good introduction to just how good Costes Cirgues sulphite free wines are. Once you've enjoyed this wine you will be tempted to move onto their other excellent reds.

Esprit de la Garrigues is a big, powerful wine which benefits from decanting. Handpicked grapes from a 2 hectare vineyard from vines between 15-25 years old. Consisting of 60% Syrah and 40% Grenache, fermented in stainless steel then aged in a combination of stainless steel and oak.

A great wine in it's own right, being sulphite free is a bonus!

This is Roger's lightest red. Soft, smooth, fruity and low in tannins.

Chemin des Moutons Organic Domaine D'Anglas is a beautiful big sulphite free syrah grenache blend. It is the flagship wine from Roger and is superb!

Another soft and smooth sulphite free red for every day drinking

A big powerful blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan aged in barriques for 24 months.

A big powerful blend of Grenache, Mourvedre and Carignan aged in barriques for 24 months.

A big powerful blend of Grenache and Syrah aged in barriques for 24 months.

Perhaps Philippe's most successful wine. A beautiful, powerful blend aged only in concrete to preserve the natural fruit flavours. Nothing added and nothing taken away.

This year Philippe has only made the one "Energie" wine. Previously there was Energie Yin and Energie Yang, but no longer. The wine is better than ever, this time being 100% Syrah fermented and aged in concrete tanks to retain all the fruit purity. Obviously the wine has Philippe's trademark natural style. Thoroughly delicious!

A great introduction to Viret wines. Fruity, earthy, very natural in style. No added acid (or anything else) of course so it harmonises with the body and quickly becomes really "moreish"!