Description
Domaine de l’Agramante, Côtes du Rhone Rouge “Cuvée M’arricriu”
Côtes du Rhône typically isn’t one of those wines I immediately gravitate towards when I’m scanning a wine list, but you can bet it would be if they all tasted like this. This juicy and exceedingly lively CdR represents a new trajectory for the Southern Rhône, one that moves away from syrupy, kirsch-like extraction at lightning speed.
Honestly, there’s so much tension and vivid, mineral-driven fruit here, I’d be awfully suspicious of foul play if you handed it to me in a blind tasting—and may even accuse you of secretly blending together a classic Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape with a natural Cru Beaujolais from Lapierre or Foillard! And while a microdose of sulfur gives today’s wine a slight “natty” vibe, the overall impression is one of clean, pure fruit. Plus, there is deceptively substantial texture and mid-palate weight that calls me right back to the Southern Rhône, where I’m very happy to stay as long as the winds of change keep blowing in this direction. In Sicilian dialect, “M’arricriu” translates to “I enjoy life,” and that pretty much sums up how this wine makes me feel: Of all the sub-$30 Côtes du Rhônes I’ve come across, this is the one that really nails it!
If you’ve ever spent any time reading winemaker bios, Carlo La Rocca’s classic mid-life crisis story will ring a bell. In 2018, the Sicilian petrochemical engineer took a long, hard look at his future and decided he wanted it to be different from his past. Realizing he was a lot more passionate about wine than crude oil, La Rocca took off for the Rhône Valley to set down both literal and proverbial roots. After a quick crash course in winemaking at biodynamic Ardèche estate Mas de Libian, he bought a tiny 1.2-hectare parcel in Sabran. La Rocca, who now has two vintages under his belt, has been farming organically from the start, and, as of last year, is well on his way to biodynamic viticulture. Today, his estate has expanded to include four hectares, composed of old vines (planted in the late 1970s and early 80s) on sandy soils, which, combined with his propensity for early harvesting, help give his wines uncommon elegance.
For Cuvée M’arricriu,” La Rocca vinifies each plot separately after de-stemming and lightly crushing. Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and Counoise comprise the blend, which spends a short time macerating on the skins before aging five months in stainless steel. La Rocca skips fining and filtering, and because of his commitment to the health of the vineyards, he also feels comfortable holding back on sulfur at bottling.
Picture yourself strolling into a hip Parisian wine bar and ordering the Côtes du Rhônes by the glass—this is exactly what you’d get. Ever-so-slightly rustic, with playful peppery spice that gives a little kick to the violet-scented crushed wild strawberry and sour cherry fruit, this is the kind of wine that just makes you smile. It’s lush, animated, and incredibly lithe, a Southern Rhône red that serves as the antithesis of high-alcohol, overly-extracted reds. Serve it slightly chilled, around 55-60 degrees, in a big Burgundy stem and pair it with good bistro food and great company. I’m thinking steak tartare, terrine de campagne, or duck confit—but really, it’s hard to go wrong here.
