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Olivier holds a bottle of his excellent wine.
"These wines are delicious today
and
will age for a decade or more'" -Robert Parker
"In addition to its remarkable fruit, the
2007 harvest offers terrific consistency.
From domaine to domaine, appellation to
appellation, and variety to variety, quality
is extremely high. Wines from the lesser
appellations such as Côtes du Rhône and Côtes
du Rhône-Villages will merit buying by the
case for their expression of both fruit and
terroir." -Wine Spectator
It looks like more great news from the
southern Rhone. In fact, this is a drinker's
vintage: sumptuous, readily accessible fruit
and soft tannins.
I was just reading in La Revue du Vin de
France
where they said, "If you want to
understand Visan, then Olivier Cuilleras is
your man."
The wines coming from Visan are more
precocious than many other area communes, its
soils are very varied and the vineyards wind
around the small hilltop village benefiting
from the slope. The wines coming from Visan
are also known for their structure.
The Cuilleras family has owned the Domaine de
Guintrandy since 1850. Olivier is the sixth
generation to work the vines here. Olivier's
first vintage was in 2000. He took over the
family estate from his father who up until
that time had been selling his grapes to the
cooperative. That was the way things went
back then, but Olivier had other ideas. He
wanted to make his own wine and put the name
Cuilleras on the label and on the map. And
that is what he has done.
Olivier uses a blend of almost 80% Grenache
(the rest
is Syrah) in his "old vines" bottling. The
results are
striking and complex.
He does not filter his wines which means all
the flavor that is created from the juice
mingling with the skins during the
elevage does not actually get removed
before the wine gets into the bottle and you
and I get to drink it. He uses a combination
of new and old barrels to age the wine. The
vines in the Vieilles Vignes bottling
are very
old - 80
years!
His estate is on top of a hill which makes it
less vulnerable to the scorching weather on
the valley floor. Olivier has some of the best
soil in the region - clay and limestone -
great drainage on the top and water retention
down below to pull the roots through those
times of drought.
This is one of the best Cotes du Rhones (and
Rhone
values) I've
found. It's got its fruit in all the
right places. Cynthia Hurley
Note that supply is limited there are
only 35
cases of the 2007 Vielles Vignes
available and
the 2006 sold out very rapidly.
To order just hit reply and let me
know how
many
cases.
Delivery will be immediate.
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