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Domaine Fontaine du Clos

Fontaine du Clos owns roughly 100 hectares of vines throughout the Southern Rhône, including 16 in Vacqueyras. Head winemaker Roland Roux is in his 13th year at Fontaine du Clos. Roux explained that all grapes are machine harvested and fully destemmed, except for Syrah. This is because Syrah here is produced with carbonic maceration, where whole bunches are needed. After the end of fermentation, the juice is heated back up to around 28 to 30°C. It is then left in contact with the skins for further extraction with one daily pumpover. The time until the wines are racked depends on the amount of desired extraction and varies from one to two weeks, with Grenache giving more extraction time than Syrah. Their red Vacqueyras yield is usually around 28 and 33 hL/Ha, well below the appellations limit of 42hL/Ha. Seventy percent of their Vacqueyras is sold domestically, while Sweden is the largest export market, followed by Belgium and the U.S.

The entry-level 40,000-bottle Vacqueyras Reflets de L'Âme is quite approachable from an early age. Then there are two special bottlings, the 4,500-bottle Vacqueyras Castillon and the 2,500-bottle Vacqueyras Pince Lapin, offering more depth and complexity. Their 2022s are supple and inviting, while the results from the challenging 2021 vintage are less charming in direct comparison and show harder tannins. The 2020, on the other hand, is a real success here, complex and showing excellent balance, much more so than the blockbuster-styled rendition of the 2019 vintage.

From Vacqueyras New Releases: Walking the Underdog (Nov 2023) by Nicolas Greinacher

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2022 Vacqueyras Blanc Reflets de L'Âme

Color: White

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