Domaine des Côteaux des Travers

Côtes du Rhône Villages

2007 Offer

We have buying from this lovely Southern Rhône domaine for the past 25 years and the wines are always outstanding value for money.  Forget simple Côtes du Rhône, the village wines can offer much, much more flavour and style, and Rasteau has to be one of the top villages out of those entitled to the better Villages Appellation.   The 2007s in the Southern Rhônes have been heralded as the best for decades.  In the Wine Advocate, the much lauded American wine critic, Robert Parker, says "2007 is the greatest vintage I've ever tasted".  This Spring we revisited the family-run domaine and we were blown away with the quality of the vintage. In fact he had sold the majority of the wine, but due to our longstanding relationship we have been able to collar enough of these three marvellous cuvées to assemble this sensational offer.

 

 

The Charavin family have a 20 hectare vineyard in the village of Rasteau, with some of the best vines on the well-drained slopes of Travers, which has excellent exposure to the sun throughout all the day.

 

 

 

We have had some excellent wines from the young and dynamic Robert Charavin over the  years, and the world has recognised his wines with a series of Awards - ranging from Robert Parker in the USA to the prestigious Gault Millau and Guide Hachette in France.  The age of the vines used to make these wines is now 40 to 60 years and he has lowered the yields to a mere 35hl/ha which has had the effect of concentrating the wine even more.

As if all this wasn't enough work, Robert is a Marathon runner and triathlete!

 

 

 

A Mixed Case consists of four bottles of each wine – 

Domaine des Côteaux des Travers, Rasteau Cuvée Marine 2007                                                                                                     £8.50  Côtes du Rhône Villages Blanc                                                                                                                                                                             Made from Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Viognier in equal proportions, with some of the wine barrel-fermented in large oak barrels, this is a very exotic white.  It has a lovely perfumed nose with floral notes and a hint of toasty oak.  On the palate it is full of concentrated fruit salad flavours, with hints of apricot and peach, finishing with crisp mineral acidity and good length.  To my palate, this is definitely the best white he has made.  It is the match of many a more expensive white Châteauneuf-du-Pape!  Currently selling elsewhere at £11.50 a bottle!

Domaine des Côteaux des Travers, Rasteau Cuvée Réserve 2007                                                                                                    £8.95  Côtes du Rhône Villages                                                                                                                                                                                            Made from 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre, this is a lovely deep purple wine with a fresh, herby nose with hints of taragon.  On the palate it is deliciously rich and ripe with loads of soft cassis and black cherry fruit against a background of vanilla gentle pepperiness. It is well structured but the massive amount of fruit and wonderful balance makes this perfect for current drinking!

Domaine des Côteaux des Travers, Rasteau Cuvée Prestige 2007                                                                                                  £11.50 Côtes du Rhône Villages                                                                                                                                                                                            With a long hot dry summer in 2007, the grapes reached levels of extraordinary ripeness.  The old vines have very long roots which were able to reach down to the water table, thus avoiding the burnt flavours that are apparent in some surrounding vineyards.

Robert’s outstanding Prestige is made from 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 20% Mourvèdre.  It is a dense wine with a lovely ripe succulent fruity nose, tinged with the subtle aromas of new oak.  On the palate, this is a big, powerful wine with great concentration, yet silky, rich, cassis/morello cherry  flavours dominate, with hints of vanilla and lovely long spicy flavours at the finish.  Stunning!  Probably the best wine he has made.  Delicious now but will continue to age well over the next five years. The IEC Wine Society have been selling this in their recent 2007 Rhône Offer at £13.35 a bottle, which just demonstrates the outstanding value o all these wines obtained for our Wine Club.

 Mixed Case Price : £115.80

 

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