Even the young-vine Rasteau (from ten to 30 years old) is terrific in 2016, boasting wonderful black cherry fruit. The 2016 Rasteau is 85% Grenache, 10% Syrah and 5% Mourvèdre, yielding a full-bodied wine that`s dense and rich, velvety and long but best suited for near-term drinking.
Founder André Romero is in semi-retirement, having passed the reins to his son Frédéric, but he still managed to come by the winery during my visit to check up on things. The trend here is toward using more foudres for the élevage, with Stockinger the preferred supplier. According to Frédéric, the 40-hectoliter size works best, the 12-hectoliter size is `OK,` and demi-muids are `too small.` As the work revolves largely around super ripe Grenache, one of the requirements is to maintain freshness, so this philosophy makes sense. 92 points