Garrus is the first wine of Chateau d’Esclans and it might be one of the best rosés out there, as well as one of the most expensive. At any rate, it is a special wine. The wine is made from 80-year-old Grenache vines as well as some Rolle, or Vermentino as it is known in Italy. Unlike most rosé, it is a wine made to drink with some age. As you saw in the past video, the wine is barrel fermented under temperature controlled conditions and then aged for eight months in barrel.
Yet another sophistication of this seductive rosé is that like some Chardonnay in Burgundy, the wine is left with the lees (dead yeast cells) in the barrel after fermentation and then stirred periodically. This process, common in white Burgundy, is called battonage, and it helps create complexity as well as texture and palate weight in the wine.
In this video, owner Sacha Lichine, consulting enologist Patrick León (also former winemaker at Château Mouton Rothschild) and James Suckling comment on the different qualities of the unique Garrus. Watch the video for the full discussion.
Click here for the tasting report.
-JGA
