Famille Perrin Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Rouge - 2020

This wine is produced by the Perrin family, using the same viticultural and wine-making techniques used at Château de Beaucastel.

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 (one single episode of frost was noted during the night of March 24, but only the early ripening plots were very slightly affected). 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.

Just 20% of the Côtes-du-Rhône vineyard is entitled to add the word ‘Villages’ after the words ‘Côtes-du-Rhône’. These are the best vineyard sites.

Stony terraces over clay and limestone and gravel.

The harvest date is determined by checking the ripeness of the grapes with analysis and tasting the berries. As soon as they arrive at the winery, the grapes are sorted and destemmed. The fermentation takes place in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks between 150hl and 190hl. The extraction is done by pumping over and the frequency is determined by tasting. After racking and malolactic fermentation, the wines are transferred partly to oak barrels, partly to oak Foudres and finally the rest goes into stainless steel vats where they will be aged for a year.