{"id":10250,"date":"2024-04-01T10:16:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T02:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/?p=10250"},"modified":"2024-04-01T10:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T02:16:02","slug":"wines-of-the-week-les-tours-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/p\/10250.html","title":{"rendered":"Wines of the Week: Les Tours & Flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les Tours 2016 Grenache Blanc Vaucluse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 94<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Careful: this bottling from Emmanuel Raynaud, the owner of world-famous Ch\u00e2teau Rayas in Ch\u00e2teauneuf-du-Pape, can go by one of two names: depending on the vintage it\u2019s either ‘Ch\u00e2teau des Tours C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne Blanc’ or ‘Rayas Les Tours Grenache Blanc IGP Vaucluse’, though on my bottle of the 2016 there was no \u201cRayas\u201d in sight anywhere on the label. Then again, the three block letters ‘IGP’ were nowhere to be seen either, so you wonder what it is some people writing on wine websites are drinking and smoking first thing in the morning and maybe all day long. For sure, the label of this wine, name of wine excluded, looks the same as that of the outstanding Ch\u00e2teau des Tours bottlings of Vacqueyras and C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne that Reynaud also produces. In fact, this wine was previously labelled as C\u00f4tes-du-Rh\u00f4ne, but in 2015, the AOC C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne re-established its wine production borders; unfortunately (and to be clear, unfortunately not just for Raynaud but for C\u00f4tes-du-Rh\u00f4ne too), the Grenache Blanc parcel with which this magnificent wine is made no longer fell within the Appellation\u2019s new boundaries. And so it is that today the wine is a Vaucluse and not a C\u00f4tes-du-Rh\u00f4ne Blanc (and no, there is still no ‘IGP’ in bold block letters on the label).<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e2teau des Tours is situated in Vacqueyras and has been owned by the Raynaud family since 1935. It is the family, home, estate of Emmanuel Raynaud, who took over running it from his father Bernard in 1989 (he took on managing Ch\u00e2teau Rayas, later when his uncle Jacques suddenly passed away in 1997). Organically farmed and horse-plowed, the forty or so hectares of Ch\u00e2teau des Tours produce majestic, really sumptuous wines that cost a fraction of the price of the Ch\u00e2teau Rayas red and white wines and deliver amazing bang for your buck. About the only problem you\u2019ll ever have with them is their limited production and how hard it is to find them. The Vacqueyras (80% Grencahe and 20% Syrah), the C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne Red (65% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 15% Cinsault) and the C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne Blanc (100% Grenache Blanc) are essentially benchmarks, or very close to that, of each of the three wine categories just mentioned. In the best wine versions, Grenache Blanc delivers unctuous, rich, mouthcoating white wines and you get all that with the Les Tours 2016 Grenache Blanc Vaucluse<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Bright, intensely golden yellow colour. Aromas and flavours of ripe pear, crab apple, honey, beeswax, aromatic herbs, cumin, tarragon, all complicated by yellow flowers and earth tones. It\u2019s long, delicately aromatic herb-accented bittersweet and earthy finish will make pairings with root vegetables a dream, but classics like thick-flesh fish (cod, salmon, tuna), poultry in mushroom sauces and aged cheeses will also fare marvellously well. The vines were planted in 1978-1980 on very nutrient-poor, sandy soil. Barrel-fermented with indigenous yeasts, the wine matures for nine months before being bottled. Drinking window: 2024-2028.<\/p>\n

Flowers 2021 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast California\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 92<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Over 25 years ago, Joan and Walt Flowers wished to make great wines that could speak of the rugged beauty of the Sonoma Coast. Over the years they have achieved that goal and then some, with hand-harvested grapes, use of indigenous yeasts, and intervening as little as possible during the various winemaking phases. Flowers is located in the Fort Ross-Seaview American Viticulture Area (AVA), located on the far western edge of the Sonoma Coast Appellation. It was established in 2012, and is marked, as are its wines, by elevation and the nearby Pacific Ocean (about four kilometers away), overlooked by estate vineyards Camp Meeting Ridge and Sea View Ridge. The Flowers 2021 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast California<\/strong> is a beauty and a very good example of just how richly satisfying, juicy and fruity, lifted, true-to-type Pinot Noir wines can be made in this specific area of cooler California (and not at all in the mould of far too many \u201cCalifornia-styled\u201d jammy behemoths that have given the variety and the wines a very bad name).<\/p>\n

Bright dark ruby-purple. Perfumed aromas of violet, blackberry, strawberry, anise and forest floor, with a complicating dusting of sweet spices and minerals. Generous and ample, but with harmonious acidity that nicely frames the juicy black and red fruit and woodsy-spicy flavours. The long luscious finish is broad and light on its feet. Approachable and easy to like, but with very good concentration and complexity, there\u2019s a lot of wine for the money here. Just one taste of this juicy, fruity, floral, will have this Pinot Noir winning over fans everywhere. Drinking window: 2024-2026.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
Les Tours 2016 Grenache Blanc Vaucluse<\/td>\n94<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Flowers 2021 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast California<\/td>\n92<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
by Ian D\u2019Agata<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wines-of-the-week","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10254,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250\/revisions\/10254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}