“La Marasque”: A wine that pays tribute to the wine’s distinctive cherry brandy character.  The Marasque is a quality cherry with an acidic taste that is much sought after for the “Marasquin” liqueur. This Gigondas boasts a dark ruby hue with purplish tints. Its nose is intense and evocative of liquorice and red fruit with some candied notes. On the palate, you will find a combination of body and bouquet with aromas of cherries in brandy and red and black fruit jams. It has all the ingredients of a complex, powerful, generous and full-bodied wine.

This AOC covers 11 communes in a triangle formed by the Tain l’Hermitage hill, the river Rhône and the river Isère. It is the biggest of the northern crus in terms of volume. The vineyard is located at the bottom of the hillside slopes that includes some areas of granitic sand but is primarily Isère quaternary alluvial deposits, made up of clay soils containing varying amounts of gravel. We select our cuvée from several wineries in the AOC, which have been working in partnership with Maison Brotte for many years.

Appearance – Dark ruby hue.

Nose – Intense with notes of spice, red stone fruit, vanilla, liquorice and raisins.

Palate – Complex, powerful and generous with notes of cherry liqueur and black and red fruit jam. This flamboyant wine shows perfect harmony between the nose and the palate.

TERROIR

Gigondas, a small village that gave its name to one of the southern Rhône Valley’s 9 crus in 1971, is located midway between Orange and the Mont Ventoux. The AOC extends over the southwestern hillsides of the Dentelles de Montmirail and its nearby valleys. Its sand and marl soils are covered with white gravel, which reflects the sun’s rays, producing grapes that are rich in tannins and polyphenols. As the vines can be located up to 400 metres in altitude, plenty of sunshine is essential to enabling the grapes to reach full maturity, which sometimes occurs late.

VINIFICATION & AGEING

The vineyards are sustainably managed with ploughing and harvesting by hand. Vinification is traditional and takes place in concrete tanks with lightly crushed grapes that are partially de-stemmed if the year requires it. The maceration is long (3 weeks) with a fermentation carried out at a high temperature (about 28°C) to extract as much material from the grapes as possible. This is followed by malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged in 100-year-old oak foudres for 12 months, with some ageing in oak barrels.

SERVING

Serve at 17°C. Open 2 hours before serving.

FOOD PAIRINGS

When young, this wine will pair perfectly with a Lyonnaise salad with poultry gizzards and livers, a grilled beef ribs, a truffled sausage or roasted quail. With age, it will make a superb match for a quail stuffed with foie gras, Provençal stew, a rack of lamb, pigeon roasted with porcini mushrooms or a stuffed capon.

Name: La Marasque

Brand: Brotte – Les Crus

Classification: AOC Gigondas

Type: Red

Region: Southern Rhône Valley (France)

Grape Varieties: Grenache and Syrah