Coudoulet de Beaucastel 2020 Blanc

6 bottles x 75cl

156,00 € incl. VAT

i.e. 26,00 € per bottle

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In stock

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Coudoulet de Beaucastel 2020 Blanc

Rhône – Côtes du Rhône

Product variants

Ratings

91 100

WA - ROBERT PARKER

91 100

WINE SPECTATOR

92 100

JAMES SUCKLING

The estate

Château de Beaucastel, a family story for five generations…

We can find the first evidence of Château de Beaucastel as it exists today in the sixteenth century.
In 1549, Pierre de Beaucastel bought a « barn with a plot of land extending to 52 saumées at Coudoulet ». The manor house will be built then with the arms of Beaucastel sculpted on a stone wall of the drawing room.

In 1687, Pierre de Beaucastel was appointed « Capitaine de la ville de Courthezon » by Louis XIV, in recognition of his conversion to Catholicism. Louis XIV’s letter, also signed by Colbert, is still visible at the Château.

In 1909, Pierre Tramier leads the wine estate and then transfers it to his son-in-law Pierre Perrin, a scientist that developed Beaucastel. Then Jacques Perrin continued his father efforts until 1978 and gave its noble letters to this wine.

Today, the torch is being carried by Jean-Pierre and François, Jacques Perrin’s sons that continue the beautiful story of Château de Beaucastel. Marc, Pierre, Thomas, Cécile, Charles, Matthieu and César, the 5th generation, work today all together with them.

Beaucastel is, first of all, a family story, the story of Famille Perrin. Their main strength is being able to blend the talents of each family member to run the wine estate under common values: absolute respect for land and terroir, biodynamic culture as a philosophy of life, the research of truth, balance and elegance.

The vineyard

Beaucastel’s terroir is marked by the Rhone violence. It is made with a layer of marine molasses (sandstone) from the Miocene period, covered by alpine alluvium. The presence of a great number of rounded stones, known as « galets », bear evidence of the time when the Rhone, a torrent at this time, tore fragments of rocks from the Alps and deposited them along its course.

The meso-climate plays an important role with a low rainfall, beautiful sunshine and spectacular temperature differences. Here, the « galets » make an essential contribution to the quality of the vintage: they retain the heat of the day and radiate it to the vines during the night. The Mistral wind that blows through the very old vines, with gnarled roots, dries and clean the vines planted in the traditional style called «gobelet».

Organically grown since the sixties and exclusively hand-picked, the grapes are carefully sorted when they arrived at the cellar. Only the best grapes will be kept and vinified. After total de-stemming, the harvest is vinified in traditional temperature-controlled vats for 15 days, before aging in oak barrels.

In order to reveal their character, aromas and originality, the 13 grape varieties of Château de Beaucastel vineyards are vinified separately.

The art of blending, passed down from generation to generation in Famille Perrin, impart character to the Beaucastel wines. After the blending is done, the wine is stocked in oak barrels where it will age for one year. Only racking operations will disturb this rest. The wine matures slowly in Beaucastel’s cellar until the moment is right to bottling. The bottles will then be kept at the chateau for another year.

The vintage

The 30 hectares of Coudoulet are located just east of the vineyard of Beaucastel. For reasons that have now become obvious, Coudoulet is often considered the baby Beaucastel. The Coudoulet soil has many similarities to that of Beaucastel.

It is made out of Molasse seabed covered by diluvial alpine deposits. These pebbles called“ Galets Roulés” play a big role: They take in the heat during the day and let it if off slowly at night which gives a good start to the vines in the Spring.

The 2020 vintage in Southern Rhône was favoured by very good weather conditions, it is a
generous vintage, both in terms of quality and quantity. Not as hot as in 2019, this year was very windy, throughout the growing cycle, with light rainfalls. After a fairly mild winter.
The spring was radiant, quite warm and very windy, which allowed the soils to preserve their freshness.

Flowering began on May 18, under very healthy conditions. The good weather continued in June, July and August, with plenty heat but lower temperatures than in 2019, cool and humid nights and wind which continued to blow, preserving the freshness of the vines and maintaining perfect sanitary conditions for the grapes.

The harvest, which was fairly early, therefore began under these very good conditions on August 26 with the white Côtes-du-Rhône and continued until the end of September with the Mourvèdre. September was warm at the beginning of the month and then more temperate, offering idyllic harvest conditions and allowed each plot to be harvested at perfect maturity.

The harvest was very healthy with beautiful juicy and very ripe grapes, reasonable alcohol levels, good acidity and already a great balance. Yields are slightly higher than 2019 and the first tastings predict a very nice vintage.

Information

Domain Château de Beaucastel
Vineyard Côtes du Rhône
Color
White
Vintage 2020
Classification Cru
Variety 30% Bourboulenc
30% Marsanne
30% Viognier
10% Clairette
Culture Organic
Alcohol degrees13°

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Tasting Notes

Eye, bouquet, palate

Crystal clear and glimmering with green and gold highlights, 2020 Coudoulet White opens with a very fresh nose with captivating, particularly floral aromatics. In the mouth it is light, lively, and has backbone, with superb balance and a touch of acidity.