The Wine Fairy

“When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” the saying goes. And when you are a cooper, every wine needs time in a barrel. So it is with Château La Rose Perrière, the Bordeaux estate owned and managed by Jean-Luc Sylvain (of renowned barrel supplier Tonnellerie Sylvain).

The Château’s red wines, unusually, are produced entirely in wood. The fermentation for the main wine occurs in 500-liter French oak casks that are renewed every year. The wine then spends 14 months in smaller barrels. “The contribution of wood is immediate and integrated into the wine from the start,” explains the winery’s website.

Château La Rose produces red and white Lussac wines, all of which have significant oak influence. There is one Saint-Emilion Grand Cru “garage wine”–the Clos les Grandes Versannes, which is sourced from a single one-hectare plot.

The rest of the estate’s red grapes are grown on the southern slopes of the Lussac hills, a sunny site that contributes to a very ripe house style. A hard limestone subsoil under shallow clay provides excellent drainage as well as some cooling influence for the vines.

Famille Sylvain also grow and bottle some non-Saint-Émilion varieties (Syrah, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay). These are used in their ongoing cooperage trials as they develop barrels to ship to winemakers around the world.

For this #MerlotThursday, we were gifted a bottle of the 2020 Château La Rose Perrière, a traditional Right Bank blend based on 80% Merlot.

Tasting Château La Rose Perrière

Deep ruby with a magenta hue. Propulsive aromas of ripe dark fruit, flowers, and mild spices. It’s a wine that–once it’s been poured–you keep smelling from the other side of the room.

Hints of extra-ripe Merlot fruits are balanced by a peppery punch of Cabernet Franc. Very ripe raspberry and blackberry are accompanied by chocolate, new leather, and grilled poblanos. Purple flowers, cedar, and graphite join the party. After 30 minutes in the glass, it becomes exuberantly floral, throwing out clouds of rose and violet like a perfume lady at a makeup counter. The palate is simpler and far less intense, with extra-soft blackberry, minerals, and cocoa.

The wine’s signature is clearest in its aromatic profile: A very ripe, later-harvested house style, with Merlot pushed toward the dark end of the spectrum. It’s freshened by those expressive floral aromas that wait just underneath the fruit. (Château La Rose Perrière uses a multi-day cold maceration with dry ice to gently extract color and flavor while protecting the grapes from oxygen.)

And–true to the winery’s description–the oak is unusually well integrated. It’s not an oaky wine. Rather, it seems to have wood in its blood and bones. The oak expresses itself in gradients. Violet and orchid fade into creamy vanilla, blurring the line between seed and flower. Dark berries become fruity cacao nibs. Graphite and cedar are married to form the entire pencil.

The wine is bottled without aggressive filtration. There is some grainy sediment, and a last glass that is noticeably denser than the first. The tiny grape particles contribute to a silky finish despite an overall medium-bodied mouthfeel.

Château La Rose Perrière is an interesting study in what happens when a cooper makes wine according to their own convictions. The wood is part of the wine’s architecture, from fermentation through élevage. I found the nose more compelling than the palate, but I enjoyed spending time with a wine whose character is so clearly shaped by its maker’s particular vision.

Bottle: Merlot Thursday: Château La Rose Perrière Lussac Saint-Émilion (2020) – Bordeaux, France

Variety: Merlot (80%), Cabernet Franc (10%), Cabernet Sauvignon (7%), Malbec (3%)

ABV: 14%

Suggested retail: $29.99

My rating: 8.8 (out of 10)

Further reading:

The Wine Write: Talking Cooperage with Jean-Luc Sylvain

Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux: Château La Rose Perrière

Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.

On Thursdays, we Merlot! See past #MerlotThursday reviews.