Vignobles Brunier - Piedlong Rouge, Châteauneuf du Pape 2020 (rött)

"En hymn till gammal Grenache"- Så säger Daniel Brunier om detta fina vin gjort på 90% Grenache (ca 70 år gamla) och 10% Mourvèdre. Stenhård selektering, traditionell vinifiering och 2 års lagring på foudres ger ett underbart friskt, bärigt, elegant vin med härlig mineralitet och syra.

Med sina egna ord beskriver Daniel Brunier vinet så här:

Here is a bottle that does not possess all the ingredients of what is called a cuvée spéciale. No barriques, because the wine is aged in foudres for 2 years. No super-charged extraction, no blackness of colour, and no record-breaking alcohol scores. No, theres none of that.

Our idea was not to violate the natural character of Grenache, quite the contrary. We wish to let it blossom gently, classically. To respect its requirements while it unveils all the minerality of the soil in which it is rooted. All the balance and elegance it yields in the great years. And, of course, all the richness we associate with it. For Grenache has the great quality of not cannibalising the terroir for its own benefit; rather, it develops the terroirs personality for the greater pleasure of enthusiasts who love profound, genuine and serious wines.

You get my gist. Piedlong is, and will be in the great vintages of the future, a hymn to old Grenache which, though not without flaws, remains the king of grapes in the Southern Rhône Valley and a great ambassador for the vin de terroir philosophy. The features that form this terroir are: Grenache vines anchored for 70 years in the entrails of the high stony plateau Piedlong, blended with 50 years old Mourvèdre vines from lieu-dit Pignan, both to the north of the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape; an increasingly Mediterranean climate (we do not irrigate, of course); and a team of men and women who respect this set of natural traits and strive to fulfil its potential.
That is the philosophy on which Piedlong is founded