Lace Made of Broken Teeth
TASTING NOTES:
2021 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes-du-Rhône Cuvée Romaine, France: “The Cuvée Romaine is a blend made from the more precocious tanks at Domaine La Garrigue sourced from in and around Vacqueyras but in the charmingly polished rusticity that has defined this address. Not needing the extended aging in concrete to tame it like its sibling cuvée from Vacqueyras, Cuvée Romaine is far more complex and age-worthy than your average Côtes-du-Rhône due to the age of the vines and its long, whole-cluster maceration.” (AbV 15.5%)
VARIETALS: Grenache, Syrah. Vines 40-60 years old. Clay limestone and gravelly clay soils at 150 meters elevation. Sustainable farming.
BARRELS: Hand harvested, lightly crushed fermentation in tank with delestage. Aged 8-10 months on lees in concrete tanks. Vegan.
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: The Dentelles de Montmirail.
Those jagged limestone spires jutting up above the southern Rhône look, from a distance, like someone left a crown of broken teeth on the horizon. The name means “lace of Montmirail” — dentelles being the delicate needlework — and there is something genuinely absurd about attaching the word for lace to rock formations that look like they could impale a low-flying aircraft. But that’s the thing about Provence: it has always had a gift for making the brutal sound romantic. These are the same mountains that sheltered a Resistance network during the Occupation, that hid Huguenots fleeing Catholic soldiers in the 17th century, that watched Roman legions march through the valley below. The Dentelles have been menacing the skyline for about 25 million years and they don’t particularly care what you call them.
Pierre Bernard runs his inn and restaurant right at the foot of these things, which seems either very brave or very French, possibly both. I imagine eating dinner on that terrace — some lamb, some local rosé, the sun going down behind the lace — and just having those ancient, violent rock formations staring back at you the whole time. No notes. Perfect.
