Chateau de Saint Cosme Little James’ Basket Press Red 750 ML

Tart plum, vanilla and sweet baking spice shape the nose on this wine. The palate opens with blackberry and plum, but firm tannins take charge with pepper and cigar-wrapper tones. Acid is balanced but mouthdrying tannins rule the finish, loaded with spicy charred serrano pepper.

Producer Information
Château de Saint Cosme is a wine producer located just north of the village of Gigondas in the southern Rhône. The estate has been growing wine since the 15th Century, and its Grenache-based wines made under the Gigondas appellation are considered some of the region’s best. The estate consists of three low-yielding vineyards totalling 15 hectares (37 acres) around Gigondas. Each of these – Le Poste, Le Claux and Hominus Fides – has a corresponding single-vineyard wine which forms the top tier of Château de Saint Cosme. These top wines are aged in a combination of first-, second- and third-fill barriques. In addition to this, there are two other wines made from these vineyards: a generic Gigondas wine, and Valbelle, which is made from older vines. The Le Poste vineyard also provides a Côtes du Rhône Blanc made from Clairette, which is fermented and aged in old oak barrels. Since 1997, Château de Saint Cosme has made a range of wines from outside of Gigondas on a negociant basis. These are vinified at carefully selected partner wineries and are aged in casks selected by Saint Cosme. The range includes wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côte Rôtie, Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage and Condrieu, as well as several Côtes du Rhône wines and the Little James range of Vin de France red and Vin de Pays d’Oc white. Saint Cosme is the oldest estate in the region; it lies on the site of a Gallo-Roman villa which likely had its own vineyard, although the first documentary evidence of wine-growing on the property was in 1416.