Domaine de Couron's Cotes du Rhone is the kind of wine you bring to a dinner party that will have everyone asking, "Wait, what is this?"
That's because it punches way above its "price class," and it delivers classic Southern Rhône character without the collector-level price.
It also comes from a wonderful, 9th generation, family-run estate located on the sunny hills overlooking the Provencal village of St Marcel D'Ardache. Husband and wife Jean-Luc and Marie-Lise Dorthe farm their 50-year-old vines without chemicals, and they make their wines with minimal intervention, letting their old vines do the talking.
The Dorthes, walking through their old vineyards in sunny Southern France.
Couron's CDR captures everything I love about Southern Rhone reds: ripe and boisterous fruit, terrific balance, and effortless drinkability. A blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah fermented with native yeasts in cement tanks, this pours a deep, nearly opaque color, and it shows ripe and generous notes of blueberry, plum, cocoa, wild herbs, and peppery spice.
Supple and fine-grained on the palate, this is the kind of red I classify as "dangerous," and that's because it disappears quickly. That smooth and opulent texture combined with the wine's attractively ripe fruit and moderate complexity make this an extreme value in my book.
Let me wrap it up. I love Cotes du Rhones, and after nearly 30 years of buying, selling, and drinking them, I think my palate is pretty keen when it comes to judging their merits. This one offers immense appeal and incredible quality-to-price ratio.
Stock up, and enjoy Couron's CDR with burgers, pizza, or barbecue. I'll be doing the same!
Josh Spurling
Owner/Operator/Wine Lover
Table Wine Asheville
