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Wines Éric's Séguret
is a blockbuster wine of a deep dark purple color that shows best after
decanting. The nose is full of sweet dark fruit, provincial spices and a
touch of chocolate. The palette is lush and dense with perfectly structured
tannins and well-placed acidity. This is a perfect match for poultry, pork,
spicy sausage or a nice French cheese. These wine will easily age 2-6 years
and a renowned wine critic even said it could stand up to top notch Châteauneuf
du Pape!
Vineyards
Éric's Séguret comes from 3 vineyards. The first,
called Espieux, is 99% Grenache and is set between the rocky, northwest
facing cliffs and the ancient village of Séguret. The 50-year-old
vines are trellised, run perpendicular to the slope and nearly meet the
ancient town wall. Also below the village is the Barry vineyard. Here
the vines are nearly 80 years old, also face Northwest (trellised, running
perpendicular) and are 99% Grenache. In both vineyards the other 1% is
Clairette and Carignan which is sporadically planted throughout because
this is how vineyards were planted 50-80 years ago! Both vineyards offer
a view of the entire Southern Rhône valley that is simply breathtaking.
The third vineyard, sometimes called the "secret spot," sits
above the village of Séguret in a gentle bowl. It is very unusual
to have enough topsoil for vines to flourish at this altitude so the yields
are very low and producing even 35 HL/HA is challenging. The old Grenache
vines are nearing 80 years old.
Terroir
Located 30 kilometers east of Orange, the Séguret vineyards are
at the foot of the Detelles de Montmirail at about 250 meters above sea
level. Both vineyards are 100% pure limestone with earthy jagged rocks
scattered through the vineyards. The climate is Mediterranean with the
exception that le mistral will blow her gusts. Nights and early mornings
are often very cold with intense heat in the afternoon. As a result, the
ripening of the Grenache is delayed and normally a few weeks later than
near by Châteauneuf du Pape.
Côtes du Rhône Villages
In 1953 four villages in the Southern Rhône were making wines considered
to be of higher quality than those usually produced under the generic
Côtes du Rhône label. These four villages - Cairanne, Laudun,
Chusclan and Gigondas were not considered to be ready for full appellation
status (like those of Châteauneuf du Pape, Côte Rotie, Hermitage,
etc.) but were certainly superior to the many Côtes du Rhône
wines produced. Therefore the INAO (National Institute of Appellations
of Origin) decided that if these villages followed agreed upon rules they
would create a new status to identify their higher quality wines. Rules
were laid out that governed grape varieties, yields per hectare and the
minimum alcohol strength of their red wines raised from 11% to 12.5%.
Producers following these rules were then allowed to market their wine
as Côtes du Rhône - "Cairanne" for example and therefore
to promote the distinctive characteristics of their local terroir. After
two additional villages joined this illustrious group (Vacqueyras in 1955
and Vinsobres in 1957) a common title was created in 1967 to apply to
all of the wines: Côtes du Rhône Villages. Today there are
16 villages with this status.
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