Rhone Valley, France
A fine-boned yet beautifully structured Grenache blend out of the Southern Rhone.
$36.00
Ciaula translates to Crow in Sicilian, a reference to a character in a Pirandello story where a slave rasies his head out of a sulphur mine at night and sees the beauty of the moon for the first time.
The parrallels between the life of this character and Carlo La Rocca are clear - Ciaula is an homage to his lightbulb moment when he first saw his way into the world of wine.
This wine is comprised of old vine Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Counoise, shaped into a lively medium bodied red with plenty of energy and plenty of grunty tannin.
A fantastic wine for the dollars asked - pound for pound one of our favourite recent discoveries from the southern Rhone.
Young Sicilian petrochemical engineer, Carlo La Rocca, had something of mid-life crisis in 2018.
At the theoretical half-way point in his life, he knew he didn't want to spend the rest of his life "in a jar". Wine was where his heart was. So he followed it. He followed it all the way to the Rhone Valley to being his second life.
He purchased a stamp-sized plot under vine in the town of Sabran and committed from day one to farm it without any synthetic sprays. With a little help from his friends at Mas de Libian, he has launched a small, boutique label that is taking flight.
The wines are bright, energetic examples of the Rhone with excellent tannin underlying the pure, delicious fruit. Domaine de l'Agramante is a name to watch.
Terroir: South facing sandy-silty terraces. Mediterranean climate and very windy.
Cultivation: Cultivation without the use of pesticides or herbicides. I use green manures for nutritive contributions. The yield is 30 Hl/Ha. The vines are goblet trained with disbudding and leaf thinning. The harvest is entirely manual with strict sorting in the plot and made in crates. Vatting healthy grapes allows me to reduce to a minimum the doses of added sulphites.
Vinification: Grapes are blended in vats, by plot, and vats assembled before bottling. 100% de-stemming. Light crushing. Fermentation temperatures regulated. Maceration for about 12 days. Daily pumping-over. Matured 10 months in vats. No filtration, I give the wines time to clarify by sedimentation.
Blend : Grenaches (60%), Syrah (25%), Cinsault (10%), Counoise (5%)
Closure : Cork
Drink Until : 2027
Bottle Size : 750ml
| Taste |
Rated 5 out of 5
|
| Interest Level |
Rated 5 out of 5
|
| Value for Money |
Rated 4 out of 5
|
For a lighter style red wine this is a lovely full-flavoured offering. Highly recommended for a wide range of foods.
| Taste |
Rated 5 out of 5
|
|---|---|
| Interest Level |
Rated 5 out of 5
|
| Value for Money |
Rated 4 out of 5
|
Delivery is Free for any order of $99 or more, or just $10 for any orders less than $99. There is no minimum order quantity and you can mix and match as much as you like. Make your perfect mixed pack! In Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Byron Bay we deliver with our own vans. All other areas are serviced by Australia Post.
Sydney Metro orders in the Pink Zone will be delivered the next day 5 days per week, Monday through Friday. Orders in the Blue Zone will be delivered on Tuesdays and Fridays. Everything outside these zones will be delivered by Australia Post.
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Brisbane Metro orders are picked up from our Sydney warehouse every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 12pm and delivered on Thursday or Friday. Please refer to this map to see if your address is considered Brisbane Metro here. Everything outside of this zone will be dispatched next business day with Australia Post.
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