2019 Clusel-Roch Côte-Rotie "Vialliere", Rhone Valley, France

ABOUT THIS WINE

Fruit from 0.6 ha in “Viallière.” The soils are iron & mica-schist. 100% Syrah from selection massale, average age of the vines is 30 years old.

Certified organic—harvest and sorting by hand. Grapes are put into tank by gravity, partially de-stemmed, and fermented with their indigenous yeasts. The extraction is purposefully gentle and the wine is aged for 2 years in oak barrels (25% new) with no filtration before bottling.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Back in the nineteen fifties René and Joséphine Clusel l began cultivating vegetables, fruit trees and Côte-Rôtie vines, like many other farmers in the Ampuis region, and they sold the wine in bottles. This was a time when Côte-Rôtie wines did not yet enjoy their current reputation, but René Clusel's Côte-Rôtie was very popular with connoisseurs.

The estate is currently run by Guillaume Clusel, Gilbert Clusel and Brigitte Roch.
It has 20 hectares of vines, on three historic vineyards of the Lyonnais, Ampuis (AOC Côte-Rôtie, AOC Côtes-du-Rhône and Vin de France), Condrieu (AOC Condrieu), Millery (AOC Coteau du Lyonnais).