Easily the early favourite from our Cuilleron adventures, this is a delicious, complete wine offering black fruit, cherries and teasing notes of oak. Delivering a supple, smooth, mouth-coating body with not an edge in sight, this is a no-brainer of a bottle to impress, invigorate and satisfy!
This is a stunning red from one of the northern Rhone's top producers.
If you like the idea of Hermitage or Côte Rotie but balk at the prices, then this is for you. If you only want to buy one really, really good bottle of French red, then, again, this is certainly for you. Dark fruits and spice with notes of licorice on the nose lead to a lush, densely fruity palate that is balanced with freshness and typical Syrah elegnace, structure and length.
This champion wine-maker of the Rhone produces some of the most exclusive wines in the region. Cuilleron knows exactly what each plot is able to yield in terms of quality, style and character and in that regard is a master of all of the vines he tends. This wine is made from the best selection of vines on the hills next to the most famed sites in the Rhone, and they are a selection found only on shallow, granitic soils in the Chavanay sub-zone. This base provides a superb platform for the grapes to ripen with minimal intervention from the vineyard team, who, in truth, only fertilise when necessary with organic fertilisers and don't even spray with insecticides. The result is this wonderfully complex, rich and pure varietal wine that is then treated like royalty (in the positive sense) and though it has a relatively short maceration of 2 weeks, it is aged in barriques for 8 months, providing the wine with structure, elegance, character and a lick of oak. A very special wine.
By the way, "Les Candives" isn't a region or area, it's actually the local name for Syrah. Now you know.
Yes, just a note; this is now the 2024 vintage, which you might think is very youthful (to say the least). Well, it is; but these days that doesn't have such negative connotations as it used to. I'd always ask myself if it is ready for drinking; in other words, is there any aspect of the wine that isn't quite right, or that will be ironed-out, or better in a year or so. The answer here, because of the skill of the winemaker, is no! It's perfectly ready to drink and there is nothing I'd want change now. It will develop and change subtly in time, but it won't get any better, nor any worse.
David Duclaux, Co-President of AOC Côte-Rôtie, declares that “2024 is a very good vintage but it required a lot of work and challenged us a lot. We have received more than 800 millimetres of rain since April, a record. We have been mowing, hedging, going through the vineyards with the brush cutter and the pickaxe. The three weeks of sunshine in August and a very cold north wind at the beginning of September generated concentration, fruit and colour leading to a very beautiful vintage, harvested mid-September, with balances reminiscent of wines from the early 2000s. All the winegrowers are delighted with the quality."
Region: Rhone Valley
Country: France
Grape(s): Syrah
Style: Svelte, Structured, Pure, Organic, Medium Full, Fresh, Fleshy, Dark, Complex
Best food matches: Venison, Tuna, Tapas, Steak, Roasts, Red Meats, Poultry, Mature Cheeses, Hard Cheeses, Grills, Fine Dining, Cheeses, Charcuterie, Beef, Barbecue
Alcohol: 12.5%
