Vignerons d'Estezargues 'Cuvee des Galets' Cotes du Rhone 2021

From: Cotes du Rhone, Rhône, France
Blend: Grenache (50%), Syrah (25%), Carignan (25%)

Taste: Aromas of just-ripened raspberries, black berries, and plum skin with a touch of Mediterranean herbs, violet and a pleasant hint of baking spice. On the palate, these flavors continue, and the wine is delightfully focused around its fruit all while maintaining a light and mildly spicy body with rounded, silky tannins and a medium finish.

Pairing: Silky, juicy, and beautifully balanced -- this is roast chicken wine par excellence. Of course, you can pair this with much more too; drink with grilled artichokes, eggplant-based dishes, pork chops with braised onions, lamb kebabs, gyros, and of course, with taco or burger night on a laid back weeknight. We’re sharing Ali Slagle’s Crispy Baked Chicken below for an easy-breezy alternative to that roast chicken note above. Santé!

This wine. Organically-farmed vines planted on alluvial marls and clay with ‘galets’ (rounded pebbles typical of the area, think Châteauneuf), with South-facing exposure. Fruit for this cuvée comes from multiple co-op members. They use all native yeasts, don’t filter or fine, and don’t add anything but a fractional amount of SO2 at bottling. Aged in concrete.