2020 Les Genoux
- Retail
- £45.00
- Member
- £36.00
- Case
- £270.00
- Case (Member)
- £216.00
- Varieties
- Grenache Noir
- Carignan
- Grenache Gris
- Grenache Blanc
- Vintage
- 2020
- Country
- France
- Region
- Roussillon
- Alcohol
- 13%
- Bottle size
- 750 mL
- Drinking Window
- 2022 - 2032
- Description
*This is our rare, single-vineyard wine, which is only produced in the best years. Only 852 bottles were made.
- Eyes
Les Genoux is less intensely coloured than the regular cuveé, as it contains 10-15% white and pink grapes.
- Nose
The nose is more complex that our main wine and is more perfumed, spicy and delicate. The use of whole bunches results in a peppery freshness and immediacy, with pristine layers of raspberry and wild strawberry, with wafts of orange peel and fennel. There's also hints of slatey minerals and even a note of iodine.
- Mouth
Initially soft, and quite shy the palate slowly unveils an array of delicate red fruits like wild strawberries and red fruit pastilles. The gentle vanillas, and subtle seasoned oak cushion a delicate 'cool-climate' Grenache palate picking up the wild strawberry theme with echoes of garrigue herbs and fennel. A light-styled wine of just 13%, the finish is still persistant and slatey.
- Body
medium
- Winemaking Notes
The source of the fruit for our 'Les Genoux' cuveé are the wonderful 100+ year-old vines in our ancient Coume de Roy vineyard. All the grapes are picked by hand, and any selection needed to eliminate less than perfect grapes is done in the vineyard. This year we ended up with three demi-muids (500 L barrels) up-ended with the ends taken out. Two of them were filled with whole bunches, crushed under-foot, and plunged gently by hand, twice or three times a day, during the fermentation. At pressing, the wine was drained into one 500L Seguin Moreau 'Icone' barrel, and the pressings blended with other Grenache pressings in another 225L barrel. After 15 months of ageing, the two barrels were blended together to create the 2020 Les Genoux cuvée.
- Growing Conditions
2020 was a year marked by an extremely wet spring with intermittent rain throughout the early summer creating uncharacteristic problems with damp humid conditions. Nevertheless, by the time summer finally arrived, with a lot of moisture in the soil, the vines grew like crazy, and produced a good-sized crop of extremely tasty grapes.
- Food Pairing
Excellent on its own as a 'vino di meditazione' (best appreciated with a good friend), Les Genoux is also a wonderful match for charcuterie (especially finnochiona, or fennel salami), and the perfumed, elegant style makes it pretty versatile.
Reviews
Matthew Jukes
Matthewjukes.com - Professional
https://www.matthewjukes.com/2022/08/wednesday-wines-episode-124-domaine-of-the-bee/In contrast to Field of the Bee, the ‘Bee’s Knees’ is a single vineyard field blend taken from 100-year-old Grenache and Carignan vines, and it cleverly employs 15% white and ‘gris’ varieties that freshen the entire experience beautifully. Justin writes that this wine is “only 13%, which is pretty light for us!”. I must agree. Previous vintages of Bee wines have been on the powerful side of the fence. So when one encounters a wine of these unusual dimensions – crazy-intense fruit with a super-low alcohol level, the game changes entirely. The nose alone is fascinating with rhubarb, raspberry, fennel and wild herbs, and this quickens the pulse. But it is a revelation when the palate follows suit and refuses to put on bulk and muscle but remains honed and silky. Tempered tannins complete the picture, and it leaves you panting with joy! This is a game-changer and a wine that demands to be tasted. It does the impossible – to balance phenomenal fruit depth and elemental power with nerve-tingling freshness and delicacy. Chapeau.
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