2021 Domaine de l’Agramante 'Ciaülà’ Côtes-du-Rhône

Region: Côtes du Rhône < France

Grapes: Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault + Mourvedre

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming on sandy/silt terraces with a very windy Mediterranean climate. Hand harvested with manual sorting, then destemmed and lightly crushed. Vinification for 12-14 days (with pump-overs) followed by élevage in steel vat for 10 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered before bottling with no filtration and minimal or NO added SO2; 13.8% ABV

Winemaker: Carlo La Rocca

• A Sicilian engineer working in France gives up the corporate job to make natural wine in the Southern Rhône Valley -- this is Carlo's wine origin story
• Older vine Grenache and longer maceration give depth and structure while still being fresh and bright
• Super purple juice - cassis, mulberry and blackberry with a hit of pepper on the finish
• Enough meat on the bones to pair with heartier winter dishes

More about Domaine de l’Agramante
Carlo is a Sicilian by birth and left a successful career as a petrochemical engineer in favour of the rabbit hole that is wine. He studied in Turin and Beaune before heading to Lyon, where he met his wife and decided to settle. By chance, we met Carlo through our friends at Mas du Libian, where he was working while establishing his small Domaine down the road in Sabran. His vines are at 250 metres altitude above Orange, in the foothills of the Cévennes mountains amongst patches of scented scrub and wildflowers. Carlo had been looking at vineyards in the Languedoc, but nothing he saw promised the freshness, liveliness and lift that he eventually found from the cooler, windswept rocky/sandy terraces of Sabran.  L'Agramente organically farms under five hectares of pre-established bush vines covering Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, and a high proportion of Counoise. Certification is already underway. He eschews the use of pesticides or herbicides and uses green manures for soil nutrition. Yields are in the 30-40 hl/ha range (low for Côtes-du-Rhône), the vines are goblet-trained with disbudding and leaf thinning, and the harvest is strict and meticulously sorted in the vineyard (it is important to Carlo to vet healthy grapes early to reduce to the need for added sulphites).