Weekend Wine... Alary Le P'tit Martin, Cotes du Rhone
October 16, 2009 at 9:40 am by
The Wine... The Oratoire St. Martin in Cairanne models how I want my wine to be made. This is a fun young red, spicy and complex enough to keep from getting boring: totally enjoyable and juicy. Frederic and Francois Alary are the current (10th) generation of their family to tend vines in a town whose best wines rival bottles from the very top communes in the southern Rhone. They farm organically, and are seeking certification for that enlightened labor. The Alary family make unfiltered reds that accurately express the character of their homeland, wines based on the great grapes of the Rhone valley: Grenache and Syrah. These grapes are grown in the rocky blue clay and limestone-laced soils of their 25-hectare estate. Replanting is en massale, a technique that maintains genetic variety in the Oratoire's fields. En massale means from a crowd, and refers to selecting the cuttings for replanting from the area's existing vines, as opposed to importing clonally identical new plants to accomplish this task. All fruit is harvested by hand and sorted rigorously to remove damaged or under-ripe berries.