Chateaude Saint Cosme

 The 2005 vintage Cotes du Rhone is unlike most as it takes advantage of recent local permission to fashion Cotes du Rhone from 100% Syrah – think excellent Crozes Hermitage! Louis describes this wine as “the key to the universe of well priced Rhone wines”. When we originally shipped this wine in summer 2007 it remained closed but recent tastings have illustrated that it has re-opened and is producing great intensity and complexity. This wine will still benefit from 12-18 more months in bottle to allow greater complexity and softness to show, making it one of the world’s most serious Cotes du Rhone. Drink 2008 – 2010

Chateau de St-Cosme itself can trace its history back to the year Columbus made his celebrated trip to America, though the cellar itself includes stone tanks first lowered into position by Roman wine-growers (and identified by Barruol’s uncle – a celebrated local archaeologist). Taught winemaking and viticulture by his father, Louis took over his maternal family domain in 1992, its 500th anniversary year, adopting the traditional techniques of long, slow maceration, natural yeast, barrel fermentation, and bottling wines unfiltered for maximum flavor and intensity. He has a passion for working with old vines, cultivating extremely small yields, and waiting patiently for full ripening and flavor development. Barruol's wines are age-worthy and powerful, fully expressing the terroir of the historic Rhône region. Indeed by 1997, he says, he felt “his brain getting smaller and smaller” – so he decided to set off up and down the valley to craft a range of micro-negociant wines as well as continuing to make St-Cosme. The relationships he has built as he’s done this, he says, have been as “enriching” as the wines he’s created: “I work with young people, old people, easy people, difficult people. My aim is to create wines that express their origin above all; for me that is the value of wine. To be reminded of a place on earth, especially when you at 10,000km away, is something fantastic for me. But there’s no doubt that human methods and human beings, are very important as well.” Andrew Jefford, Author of THE NEW FRANCE describes the “ambitious and articulate Louis Barruol as one of the new stars of the Southern Rhone – and of the Northern Rhone too, since the wines he has signed from Condrieu and Cote Rotie are also superb. Grace, purity and singing fruit are three of the Barruol hallmarks; it is almost as if he is making Gigondas (always a potentially bruising wine) in the spirit of Cote Rotie itself. The Cotes du Rhone “Les Deux Albion” is a masterpiece of floral enchantment when young (this wine includes 10% Clairette); even Barruol’s celebrated prestige Gigondas Valbelle has an almost pinot-like aromatic finesse, with beautifully restrained oak influence.”

“The saying ‘août fait le moût’ or ‘august makes the harvest’ was truer in the Rhône than even in Bordeaux or Burgundy and produced, in 2005, wines of great intensity with balancing freshness of acidity. The wines have immediate appeal that belies their ageing capacity. Lovers or the 100% Syrah reds from the northern Rhône must cellar a few cases.” Steven Spurrier, Decanter Magazine 2007

Chateau de Saint Cosme.

Cotes du Rhone 2005

£96 per case of 12 bottles.

To order e-mail  sip@harperwells.com or call 01603 411466.