Santa Duc 2020 Cotes du Rhone "Les Quatre Terres" 750ml

LOCATION : Parcels located at Vacqueyras and Rasteau classified as Crus, but also at Roaix and Séguret classified as Côtes-du-Rhône Villages. It is this blend of four terroirs that gave this wine its name “Quatre Terres”.

SURFACE AREA : 6 hectares.

GEOLOGY : Piedmont sand from the erosion of Miocene safre at Vacqueyras and Roaix.
Limestone clay alluvial terraces at Séguret.
Red limestone on the sandstone of the old Ouvèze terrace at Rasteau.

METHOD OF CULTIVATION : Ecocert-certified organic and Demeter-certified biodynamic.

GRAPE VARIETIES : Grenache 70%, Syrah 15%, Mourvèdre 10%, Carignan & Cinsault 5%.

AGE OF VINES : Average 40 years.

HARVESTING & VINIFICATION : The grapes are hand-picked into crates and sorted manually in the vineyard before a second, table sorting in the cellar. A proportion is destemmed, the quantity being determined by the nature of the vintage and the parcel, and the grapes are fed by gravity into the vats to ensure the integrity of the berries. Fermentation takes place in thermo-regulated stainless-steel vats for 20 to 30 days, with two long pumping over sessions daily. Punching down is decided after tasting. Pressed pneumatically. Malolactic fermentation in vat. The wines are clarified by settling over winter in the cellar. Barrel filling occurs in the spring.

AGEING : 18 months in 36-hectoliter oak Stockinger foudres, and 8-hectoliter terracotta amphorae. Unfined and unfiltered at bottling.

PERSONALITY : The wines from these parcels have lovely floral aromas, notes of red and black fruit and garrigue, with a pure, elegant tannic structure.