Les Dauphins Côtes du Rhône Réserve 2021
I usually ask people who I interview to recommend a wine. In this case, I chose to showcase this Les Dauphines Côtes du Rhône Réserve as it is one of my favourite designs crafted by Amphora Design (and a wine easily available in South Africa). I had the pleasure of interviewing Neil Tully MW, the Founder and Creative Director of Amphora Design where I asked him a few questions about wine label design. Neil's interview can be found here. In the meanwhile, here are my thoughts on this everyday red.
The Wine:
The nose is all the ripe red and black cherries and plums, stewed fruits, some jamminess, and gentle cinnamon and cloves.
Dry, medium acidity that reads as moreish plum skin tartness, and a fuller body because of the ripe plush fruit and soft tannins. These taper off smoothly with a medium finish. Poached guava peel joins this friendly party. It feels like a drama free dinner party that starts promptly and finishes at a reasonable time - with perfectly polite and charming company. It has everything you want: warmth, friendliness, interest, delight...and you’d happily accept the next invitation.
Vini + Viti:
60% Grenache 30% Syrah, 5 % Mourvèdre, and 5 % Carignan from the south of the Côtes du Rhône regions in the southern Rhône Valley. The Grenache are gobelet trained (bush vines), and the Syrah is Guyot trained (trellised) in vineyards planted on chalky clay slopes at 150-400 metres above sea level. They make use of minimal chemical interventions (fertilisers and pesticide), only using them as needed.
25% of the grapes are hand harvested, the rest are machine harvested.
Fermentation occurs over 2-3 weeks in small temperature controlled tanks.
Final thoughts:
This wine is an example of the excellent work done by Neil Tully MW and his team at Amphora Design.
Its label speaks to the region’s tradition whilst updating its presentation with a modern colour palate that absolutely nails your expectations of this friendly, everyday wine.
Find the Wine:
I picked up this older bottle from Woolworths.
