Rasteau Vin Doux Naturel Domaine de Beaurenard 50cl

Intro to Rasteau Vin Doux Naturel Domaine de Beaurenard – Rasteau Domaine de Beaurenard VDN Rhone Valley France is deliciously textured and full of sweet elegant, vibrant chocolatey fruit. Full tasting note and wine making  – The grapes for this sweet, fortified Rasteau grow on especially well-exposed terraces of stony, clay-chalk soil. They are entirely Grenache Noir: small, highly concentrated bunches with a yield of about 10hl/ha. The grapes are hand-picked when very ripe, bursting with sunshine and containing more than 260g of natural sugar per litre before alcohol is added to arrest fermentation. The alcohol is added to the grapes; the juice then continues to macerate for a few days to fix the wine’s magnificent purple colour and tannins. Two years’ ageing in oak casks gives full expression to this sweet wine. Domaine de Beaurenard stretches over 25 ha of vineyard in Rasteau, in the Rhone Valley on land which has been classified as Village quality since 2010. For the wines low yielding Grenache (80%) and Syrah(20%) grapes is the chosen blend. All the grapes are hand-picked before ferment for 18 to 28 days after which it was clarified and aged for 12 month in vats and oak foudres and then bottled. The producer – Domaine de Beaurenard in Châteauneuf-du-Pape has been a family-run estate for seven generations and a notarial act dated 16 December 1695 mentions Bois Renard, which over time has become Beaurenard. The Coulon brothers, Daniel and Frédéric, have taken over from Paul and Régine and are striving to sustain tradition. The estate covers 32 hectares (a little under 80 acres) of vines in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and 25 hectares in the Côtes du Rhône Villages Rasteau AOC area. The terroir including the pebbly soil, the 13 permitted grape varieties, the sun and the Mistral have been joining forces for centuries to give birth to each vintage of the Châteauneuf du Pape appellation. For the red wines, four varieties dominate : Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault, supplemented by Counoise, Muscardin, Terret Noir and Vaccarèse and are 45 years old on average. The whites are made from white-grape vines : Clairette, Roussane, Bourboulenc, Grenache Blanc, Picardan and Picpoul. All of Domaine de Beaurenard’s vines (60ha) are cultivated organically (Ecocert certified) and biodynamically (Demeter certified), without synthetic chemicals. At key moments, they apply biodynamic preparations (dung compost, etc.) that strengthen the vines’s natural defences. To further fortify them, plant-tea sprays (nettle, yarrow, horsetail, camomile…) are regularly dispensed. In the vineyards, these methods involve working the soil without herbicides, spreading carefully-dynamised manure, and maintaining sensible grass cover. Drink with – Great with chocolate desserts and Florentines.