The Beaucastel 2010 Cotes du Rhone Coudoulet blanc may well be the best Coudoulet white I have ever tasted. I scored it very conservatively last year, but out of bottle this wine (again, a blend of 30% Viognier, 30% Bourboulenc, 20% Marsanne and the rest Clairette) is not dissimilar from drinking the Beaucastel Roussanne. This is a gorgeous wine, with wet stones interwoven with apricot marmalade, white peach, honeysuckle and rose petals. It is an extraordinary Cotes du Rhone white and possibly the best white Cotes du Rhone I have ever tasted. It should drink nicely for 4-5 years.
As I said last year, the Perrin family is a large one indeed, with brothers Jean-Pierre and Francois sitting at the top of the hierarchy and their four sons, Mathieu, Pierre, Thomas and Marc increasingly taking charge of their negociant business and their extensive estates throughout Southern Rhone. Now controlling over 1200 acres, as well as having a network of contracts, this operation is the equivalent of a major Southern Rhone train operating at high speed. Moreover, they are doing some incredible work in all price ranges. Other 2011s that the Perrin boys have produced include the following wines, which were very good across the board, especially for 2011s. In particular, readers need to take a hard look at their estate in Vinsobres, which is making the finest wines of that appellation, and more recently, what they are doing in Gigondas with the estate they purchased there, Clos des Tourelles. These are special wines. There are now three cuvees of Gigondas from the Perrins - the Gigondas La Gille, the Gigondas Vieilles Vignes and the Gigondas Clos des Tourelles. All three merit serious attention. Tasting the 2010s, which were all set to go into bottle right after my visit, certainly shows that this vintage is impressive, although I'm not sure that Marc and Pierre Perrin haven't done as good a job with their selections in 2011. Three cuvees of Gigondas look to all have outstanding potential and will probably be in bottle by the time this report is published.
Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802
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