Les Genoux 2023
- Retail
- £50.00
- Member
- £40.00
- Case
- £300.00
- Case (Member)
- £240.00
- Varieties
- Grenache Noir, Carignan, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc
- Vintage
- 2023
- Country
- France
- Region
- Roussillon
- Alcohol
- 13.5%
- Bottle Size
- 750ml
- Drinking Window
- 2025 - 2035
- Description
Les Genoux is a our top cuvée - a field blend of mostly Grenache Noir from a single ancient vineyard containing vines that are over 100 years old.
This is the last vintage we have made, as we took the sad decision to rip out the vines in early 2024. The vines were weakened by disease and lack of water, and the drought of 2021-2024 pushed them over the edge.
Only 650 bottles were made.
- Eyes
- Les Genoux is less intensely coloured than the regular cuveé, as it contains 10-15% white and pink grapes.
- Nose
- This year's Les Genoux is a delicate, poised wine with ethereal pure red fruit and herbs on the nose. In spite of being Grenache grown in the hottest part of France, it still only clocks in at just over 13.5%. It is incredibly enticing, and the whole-bunch component adds freshness and a peppery bite to a core of extremely expressive wild strawberry and sweet liquorice fennel.
- Mouth
- Quite a punchy front palate with plenty of red fruits like strawberries and red fruit pastilles. There are gentle oak-derived vanillas, and subtle barrel seasoning accompanied by a rich, ripe, yet elegant Grenache palate picking up the wild strawberry theme and adding notes of orange peel, rosemary and fennel. A richer Les Genoux, but with a bright and persistent finish, and pithy finely-textured tannins.
- Body
- medium
- Winemaking notes
- The source of the fruit for our 'Les Genoux' cuveé are the wonderful 100+ year-old vines in our ancient Coume de Roy vineyard. All the grapes are picked by hand, and any selection needed to eliminate less than perfect grapes is done in the vineyard. This year we ended up with three demi-muids (500 L barrels) up-ended with the ends taken out. They were filled with whole bunches, crushed under-foot, and plunged gently by hand, twice or three times a day, during the fermentation. At pressing, the wine was drained into one 500L Seguin Moreau 'Icone' barrel and the rest, plus the press wine, to another older barrel. After 15 months of ageing, we bottled our best 500L barrel as 'Les Genoux', the last ever vintage from these old vines.
- Growing Conditions
- After a second dry summer, with a dry winter in between, the lack of water in the region is turning into a crisis, and the vines struggled to flower and ripen a normal sized crop. The heat, and shortage of water resulted in a lower yield of smaller-sized grapes, with plenty of ripeness and flavour. The Coume de Roy vineyard managed a small yield, perhaps exhausted by the efforts of the year before, and we are pleased to be able to present the last vintage.