2017 Cotes du Rhone

Balanced, smooth, perhaps a little indistinct. Doesn't seem to have the same depth of flavour as usual, although to be fair I tasted Clos des Papes immediately beforehand! Generic bramble fruit, soft tannins, moderate length. (RH)

50% Syrah, 40% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre. As ripe and delicious as ever. Does this wine ever put a foot wrong? And they make 4 million bottles of it in a normal year! Combines ripe red fruit with piquant pepper and fresh garrigue. The blueprint for great Rhône red at an affordable price. (RH)

I’ll cover the majority of reds from this great estate in the Northern Rhône report, but I was able to taste the 2017 Côtes du Rhône for the Southern Rhône report. Always a solid value as well as an impeccably made wine, the 2017 offers a medium ruby color as well as pretty notes of black cherries and crunchy raspberry fruits intermixed with lots of peppery garrigue and spice. It displays the charming, Provençal, medium-bodied style of the vintage nicely and is ideal for enjoying over the coming 3-4 years.