Château de Beaucastel - Côtes du Rhône Coudoulet de Beaucastel Rough 2021
Price: $29.99
| Producer | Château de Beaucastel |
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| Country | France |
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| Region | Rhone Valley |
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| Subregion | Cotes du Rhone |
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| Varietal | Rhone Blend |
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| Vintage | 2021 |
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| Sku | 34743 |
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Wine Advocate: 92 Points
A terrific vintage for this wine, which was bottled just a couple of weeks prior to my late June visit, the 2021 Cotes du Rhone Coudoulet de Beaucastel is a blend of 30% each Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah, plus 10% Cinsault. From a vineyard just outside the boundaries of the appellation of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, it's a remarkably consistent wine and always a solid value. Scents of sunbaked stones, black cherries and licorice appear on the nose, joined by hints of purple raspberries and dark chocolate, while the medium to full-bodied palate is lush and velvety, finishing long and complex.
On my last two visits to this large, historic property, I've been greeted by Cesar Perrin, who now manages all of the family's vineyards and supervises the winemaking at Château de Beaucastel. Other family members continue to be involved in the myriad wine-related business decisions, including participating in the annual blending process.
The big news is that the new, state-of-the-art winery facility is inching closer to completion. Built largely of rammed earth from the site, and designed to have a big portion of the cooling load handled by ambient winds evaporating stored rainwater, it will set new standards in sustainability (assuming it all works the way it is supposed to).
In the vineyards, experiments with various cover crop regimes rolled as mulch are taking place with a view toward slowing sugar accumulation in the grapes and reining in potential alcohol levels. The results are intriguing, with the 2021 samples I tried from barrel coming in 0.5% to 0.7% lower in finished alcohol and with slightly lower pHs compared to plots farmed more traditionally, yet they wines still exhibit dark fruit and supple tannins. "I don't want to change," explained Cesar, "but I'm afraid to have too much alcohol and too low acidity." Along similar lines, there's been a bit more use of open-top vats for fermentation, which can also bring down alcohol levels.
Overall, the 2021s here have turned out very well, with Cesar calling it, "a nice vintage, in quantity and quality."
Drink Date:
2023 - 2035
