This is the Reserve from the family vineyard and we make no excuses for featuring it on our list, since it ticks every one of our selection criteria. Owner run, obsessive attention to detail, real winemaking talent and fabulous terroir and grapes to work with combine to make a stunning wine. Bottled in 2010 and coming from one of the best vintages, it really shows the value of old vine Grenache and appropriate aging. It is beautifully complex, yet incredibly smooth. Something of an old vines Priorat about it!

PRODUCER:	Clos de Trias
REGION:	Southern Rhone
APPELLATION:	AOC Ventoux
VINTAGE:	2007
BLEND:	96% Grenache, 4% Syrah
USE OF OAK:	1/3 aged in 600  700L Barrels
AGING:	24 months
AGE OF VINES:	60+ years average
ORGANIC:	Under certification
PRODUCTION	9,000 bottles

CHARACTERISTICS

Our tasting notes for this read “Nose: Heady fruits, balanced alcohol, spice, tobacco. Hints of red cherries and pear drops. Unusual, complex. Palate: Standout. Unusual, with macerated fruits and long, long finish. A sensual wine.” This is a pleasure to drink and deserves good food to match it. It will age well and should drink for the next 5-7 years.

THE WINERY

Even Bakke is a very experienced winemaker from California with an impressive CV. He fulfilled his ambition of having his own vineyard when the family bought an old run down estate in the very north of the Ventoux appellation, in a spectacular setting at the foot of the Dentelles and Mont Ventoux itself. The attraction of the estate was the terroir, with a range of parcels spread between 360 and 420 meters, mostly in Triassic limestone clay, with fractured limestone and sand; hence the new name. With 25ha of mostly Grenache and an average vine age over 40 years, he has fantastic grapes to work with. 2007 was the first harvest and he has farmed organically and with biodynamic principles from the outset. A full certification will follow in due course. For Even, this is not a marketing ploy, it is truly a way of life and it shows throughout everything that is done at the winery. Even is clearly a talented winemaker, who has been able to take the modern winemaking techniques acquired in California and meld them in a natural way with the fabulous vines of this Provencal hillside. His first vintage is proof of this talent.