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RHONE VALLEY
– BLENDING –
A Grenache vineyard at Domaine Martin in the
southern Rhone Valley
In Rasteau, the dry red wines are very structured and
aromatic, with Grenache, the main grape variety,
imparting abundant roundness. Old-vine Grenache
produces wines with a silky tannic backbone and aromas
of ripe fruit and spices, whereas Syrah lends the dry reds
an intense colour and appealing notes of black fruit,
violet and pepper. Although Grenache is the most widely
planted grape variety in the southern Rhone, Syrah is the
dominant variety in the northern Rhone Valley. Here,
it is fermented as a single red grape variety, although it
can be grown alongside the white Viognier in Côte-Rôtie
and with Roussanne and Marsannne in Saint-Joseph and
Hermitage. In Cornas, Syrah is grown as a single varietal
across the 136-hectare appellation. The very pronounced,
long-standing dichotomy between Syrah in the North and
Grenache in the South of the Rhone valley is still true
today. Syrah has gained currency in the cooler southern
and Languedoc vineyard sites in the Pic Saint-Loup and
Terrasses du Larzac appellations, where it is preferred to
Grenache, unlike in the southern Rhone.
In the southern Rhone Valley and at Châteauneuf du Pape, limestone shards
lend the wines at Maison Ogier elegance and pronounced minerality
JUDICIOUS USE OF WOOD
Founded in 1859, Maison Ogier - which belongs to the
Advini group - is based in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the
heart of the most prestigious of the southern French
appellations. In order to interpret the subtle variations
in the vineyard sites in the Côtes du Rhône, Ogier has
honed its knowledge of the appellation’s soils - pebbles,
fawn-sands, red sandstone, limestone fragments – and
then adapted its fermentation and maturation techniques
accordingly. Its century-old cellars house more than 8,000
hl of wooden tanks, tuns, demi-muids, barrels and conical
wooden vats. But this in no way implies that the wines are
over-oaky. Quite the contrary. “Although each label has
its own identity, our fruit is co-fermented (several grape
varieties in the same vat) to produce unique balance and
complexity through this intimate fusion of grape varieties.
Although some of our wines are matured in concrete
tanks to preserve fruit, most of our red wines benefit from
being matured in oak barrels to preserve their typicity
whilst at the same time gaining in finesse and freshness.
The northern growths, which are mainly Syrah-based,
spend some time in new oak, as do some of our southern
32 WINTER 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE