Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Loads of dark berries, dried herbs, roasted meat and cloves. Full body with fine tannins. It’s rather dense with fine texture. Delicate touch at the center yet it is muscular at the edges and well framed. It is condensed and focused with a fruity and spicy edge in the finish. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Try after 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
This svelte red blend celebrates the beauty that bottle aging can reveal. The wine opens with black plum, blackberry puree and hints of hibiscus and dried-cherry shavings. Everything about this wine is well integrated and in balance, including elegant black fruit and still-youthful tannins that tease their latent power. Drink now or confidently age for eight years or more.
Editors' Choice
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Granted its own appellation within Minervois in the Languedoc region of France, Minervois La Livinière takes its name from cella vinaria, Latin for ‘wine cellar.’ In the hilly northern end of Minervois, the altitude and dense, rocky limestone soils of La Liviniere produce quality red Rhône Blends made from Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache and Carignan.