Archives

This Week 's Pick

Pick Of The Week Archive

May 6 , 2002

1989 Domaine de Trévallon Rouge

4 grapes

While it is always a pleasure to spot a great wine that is readily available in liquor stores, sometimes it is equally a pleasure to open a matured delicious wine from the cellar. This was just the case.

"A very classic vintage a very elegant wine"

Brickish colour with aromas of figs, cinnamon dry cherry. The palate offers smooth flavours of earthiness and rustic elegance with a long and persistent finish.

Worth drinking now, but no urgency. It will be at its peak in 5 to 8 years.

The red wine is an assemblage of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Syrah. This could appear somewhat revolutionary, although Eloi Dürrbach remarked that Doctor Guyot in his book "Etude du vignoble de France", published in 1868, considered this assemblage as producing an exceptional wine for the South of France.

Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon are harvested and vinified separately; the grapes are not destemmed.

Fermentation takes place in small-sized stainless steel vats and a wooden one is used to carry out the "pigeage" or punching the cap with feet.

Vatting lasts 2 to 3 weeks without temperature control and without yeasting. The wine is then aged for 2 years in small oak barrels.

Red wine production varies between 40,000 and 65,000 bottles, according to the vintage.

Information:

The Domaine de Trevallon, considered to be the best wine from Provence along with Château Vignelaure, is located in Provence, in southern France, on the northern side of the Alpilles, between Avignon and Arles, a short distance from St. Rémy de Provence. In 1973, Eloi Dürrbach created the vineyard by dynamiting a part of the hills surrounding the domain. This was to be the birth of a new vineyard, in the heart of an extraordinary landscape, midway between garrigue and limestone.

The Purple Feet Rating System:

5 grapes = spectacular

4 grapes = delicious

3 grapes = yummy

2 grapes = okay

1 grape = awkward

Top of page