Les Grandes Serres Rocca Luna Beaumes de Venise 2020

The sweetness came across strongly, but the wine was heavy and dominated by black fruit.

Region: Rhône · Type: Red · Vintage: 2020 · Producer: Grandes Serres · Grape: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre

Tasted 2025-02-18

A bottle of Les Grandes Serres Rocca Luna Beaumes de Venise 2020.

In the glass

It struck me as strongly sweet, yet heavy, with black fruit in charge. With black fruit that dominant, I thought Syrah must make up a fair share of the blend. I was not in good shape, and the wine did not taste especially good to me, so it did not go down easily.

Producer

Grandes Serres is a Rhône wine house that began in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Since 2022 it has been led by Romain Leroy, who followed Samuel Montgermont. The house is established in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and Cairanne.

Site

This red comes from Beaumes-de-Venise in the Rhône, from terraces at 200 to 300 m in the heart of the Dentelles de Montmirail, on calcareous marls (marnes calcaires) from the Trias. The name Rocca Luna comes from the moon. Romain Leroy calls this cuvée a lunar (lunaire) wine, because its vineyard of grey marl with silvery glints lies just below the highest cliffs of the Dentelles de Montmirail, a mountain range lined with sharp, lace-like white limestone cliffs, and because that soil dates from the Trias, the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago.

Vinification

The blend is Grenache 70%, Syrah 25% and Mourvèdre 5%, and Mourvèdre is a red grape that originated in Spain. The wine is fermented without sulphur (soufre) and is always aged in 100% concrete tanks (cuve béton), and across the domaine no industrial yeasts are used. The approach otherwise shifts from year to year, sometimes destemmed and sometimes with the stems kept, with carbonic or traditional macerations, the aim being to bring forward the fruit of the grapes and the minerality.

Sources

Korean