Wines The Les Cadinnieres,
made from 80 year old Grenache vines, is a dark ruby-garnet color, dense
on the palette and seems to go on forever. This full-bodied wine benefits
from decanting, offers aromas of sweet fruit (blueberry, black currant),
spice and provincial herbs. This wine will easily age 2-6 years but once
opened, it is best to finish, as the Les Cadinnieres doesn't show as well
the second day.
Vineyards
Éric's Les Cadinnieres vineyard is located between the town
of Saint Gervais and the hamlet of Les Cellettes on a south-facing hillside.
From the vineyard, one has a vast view of the southern Rhône River
basin. The gobelet-trained vines are planted 4000 per hectare.
Terroir
Saint Gervais, in the Gard département, is bordered to the North
by the out hills of the Ardèche and sits in a small valley carved
by the river Cèze along an ancient fault. Located 5 km northwest
of Bagnols-sur-Cèze, it is the most western village of the 16 Côtes
du Rhône Villages. The red clay soil consists of decomposed limestone
from the Mesozoic era and it becomes a more gravely soil as it approaches
the plateau.
With the Ardèche to the north and the Cèze to the south
the Mediterranean mesoclimate in the vineyard is moderated so that during
the summer the vineyards are much cooler than normal for the Southern
Rhône which results in a later than average harvest.
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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