Offering red and black fruits, ground pepper, sappy garrigue, and liquid violet notes, the 2024 Côtes Du Rhône Villages Vaison La Romaine Romanaise is medium-bodied and has a concentrated, nicely balanced mouthfeel with ripe tannins. This 100% Grenache was aged 10 months in concrete and shows terrific purity and focus. Give it a year or two and drink through 2034. There are roughly 1,250 cases produced. Drink 2026-2034." - Jeb Dunnuck 11/25

• This wine comes from their estate vineyard in Saint-Roman-De-Malegarde. Its exposure on the North side of the hill offers a magnificent freshness.
• Vineyard of Saint-Roman-De-Malegarde, chalky clay-limestone slopes, with a North-West exposure.

Varietal Composition: 100% Grenache

Elaboration: The harvest is sorted and destemmed. The vinifications are long to allow optimal extraction and are done in concrete tanks. Aging in 350 liter French oak barrels for one year.

Tasting Notes: Very intense color, ruby red with purplish reflections. On the nose, aromas of intense fruit and spices. In the mouth, a remarkable power. Elegant with a spicy aromatic finish.

In the Southern Rhone Valley, North-facing slopes are becoming a “thing.”

Why?

From Chateauneuf to Gigondas and everywhere in between, it is getting a bit too warm there on many of the usual/existing South and East facing sites.

But...

If you are a forward-thinking and/or accidentally lucky vigneron, you might have north-facing slopes.

If not, you'll want some!

In the Rhône Valley, your "North Face" vines will see WIND. You know...the famous, cold,  alpine "mistral" that slams vines with cold mountain air, at speeds up to 75 MPH, 100 days a year. In addition to this cooling wind, vines in this orientation will see less solar intensity and fewer hours of sun per day. Add things up and this means a vigneron can bring grapes to full physiological maturity at the same time that sugars reach the appropriate levels - Such coordination between sugar and maturity is an absolute must if you seek maximum complexity, yet such balance is too often lacking in today's climate in the Rhône Valley as a whole.

Beyond the benefit of coordinated physiological maturity/sugar levels, North Face vines will get to those levels SLOWLY, and as we know, long/slow ripening is the key to complexity - You can't just taste this difference, you can smell it and feel it, especially in Fond Croze's "Shyrus" bottling.