With the Delas Frères Côtes-du-Rhône Saint Esprit, a first-class red wine enters the glass. Made from a blend of Syrah and Grenache, it displays a delightfully dense, crimson color. Poured into a Bordeaux glass, this red wine from France offers deliciously youthful aromas of plums, blueberries, and black cherry, rounded off with cocoa beans, oriental spices, and gingerbread spices, which contribute to the barrel aging. The deep color has a dark, plum-like tint. It has a full, round taste with delicate tannins, making it unique in the “Côtes-du-Rhône” category.

This dry red wine from Delas Frères is ideal for wine lovers who can't drink their wine dry enough. The Saint Esprit Côtes du Rhône comes very close to this. It is bottled with only 2 grams of residual sugar. On the palate, this powerful red wine is characterized by an incredibly silky and fleshy texture. The balanced fruit acidity caresses the Saint Esprit Côtes du Rhône with a pleasant mouthfeel, without simultaneously lacking freshness. In the finish, this red wine from the Rhône Valley wine region ultimately impresses with its beautiful length. We at wijnclubamsterdam.nl recently drank it at a home dinner with roasted leg of lamb from the oven. In one word: fantastic!

Delas Frères

The Delas Frères winery was founded in 1835. By 1879, this winery had built a worldwide reputation and won its first gold medals. To meet the increasing demand for wine after the Second World War, the company invested in the purchase of vineyards in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Hermitage. In the 1960s, Delas Frères was one of the leading wine companies in the Rhône, with its own vineyards in Hermitage, Cornas, Côte Rôtie, and Condrieu. To this day, Delas Frères owns top vineyards.

Côtes du Rhône on the label, what does that mean?

By far the most important appellation of the region is the ordinary Côtes du Rhône, traditionally the simple regional wine for everyday use. Slightly better regarded, however, is the Côtes du Rhône-Villages appellation, the wine from the better villages. Côtes du Rhône-Villages was established as a separate appellation in 1966. The better soils were demarcated, the quantity of wine produced per hectare was limited, and the grape varieties permitted for these wines must be of a superior type.

However ….

But simply assuming blindly that every one of the roughly 13 million bottles of Cotes du Rhône-Villages produced each year is better than every bottle of ‘ordinary’ Cotes du Rhône is entirely unjustified! We see a perfect example here with Delas Frères Côtes-du-Rhône Saint Esprit. A major cause of this difference is the application of various winemaking methods. Many producers opt for fermentation in the style of Beaujolais: namely, carbonic maceration. This results in a fruity, light product, not made for aging, but to be drunk within one to two years of the harvest. Such a wine is not necessarily bad, but it is useful to know before you buy it.

Other winemakers, such as Delas Frères, are much more focused on producing a wine that has some aging potential, but which is consequently not very enjoyable in its youth. A substantial dose of tannins (tannic acid), which leaves a strongly dry impression on the palate, lends these wines their longevity. However, the wine lover cannot tell from the label what type of wine lies beneath the cork. Wines from some villages are allowed to distinguish themselves with their own village name on the label, alongside the Côtes du Rhône-Villages appellation. Wines from these villages can be particularly interesting; producers thus choose to emphasize their own identity with a certain degree of quality. However, that is no guarantee of better quality.