2016 Tardieu-Laurent Cotes du Rhone Villages Becs Fins Rouge is sold out.

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Côtes-du-Rhône “Better Than Many a Châteauneuf”

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    2016 Tardieu-Laurent Cotes du Rhone Villages Becs Fins Rouge 750 ml

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    “Better Than Many a Châteauneuf”

    “Better Than Many a Châteauneuf”

    Tardieu-Laurent’s Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Les Becs Fins has perennially been among the top value-buys in Southern Rhône.  In the extraordinary 2016 vintage, Michel Tardieu and his team released the finest version of this mouthwatering cuvée to date.  Jancis Robinson MW, one of the world’s most respected wine critics, is uncharacteristically enthusiastic: “Very ‘serious’, savoury, dense nose for a wine with this appellation. This tastes so much better than many a Châteauneuf I have had from less irreproachable sources! This is the first ambitious 2016 southern Rhône red I have tried and I am knocked out by the quality and concentration.”  Wine Access signed up for the entire U.S. allocation, so that you can buy today exclusively at the winery-direct price of $19.99 a bottle.

    Robert Parker has been touting the wines of Tardieu-Laurent since the winery’s debut in 1994, and praising this particular cuvée since 2000, declaring it “an astonishing bargain” and one of Tardieu-Laurent’s “top values” over the years. Yet in 2016, Michel Tardieu, his son Bastien, and acclaimed enologist Philippe Cambie released a Côtes-du-Rhône Villages of unprecedented quality, offering savory richness at a fraction of the cost of the competition.

    Credit is due to Michel Tardieu and his famously encyclopedic knowledge of the various terroirs of the Rhône Valley. A former chauffeur for the Conseil General de Vaucluse, in between long drives he logged countless hours in the greatest cellars and vineyards of southern France, becoming intimately familiar with the top vignerons of the region. When he became a negociant, joining forces with winemaker Dominique Laurent, he knew just where to turn to source the greatest fruit. For the Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Les Becs Fins, Tardieu (now the sole owner) snapped up superlative 60-year-old Grenache and 30-year-old Syrah from the Gard department, where grapes are kissed by the Mediterranean sun and breeze.

    But equally important to this bottle’s success was the unforgettable 2016 vintage in Southern Rhône. 2015 was one of the greatest years in a generation — few expected a season of comparable quality to follow immediately on its heels. Yet 2016 is poised to possibly even surpass its predecessor, earning a 96-99 rating from Wine Spectator, which declared it “a truly rare vintage.”

    The Wine Advocate echoed the praise: “these are wines of immense power and elegance” and “it will be a vintage to buy and cellar.” Tardieu himself was practically at a loss for words to sum up the year’s ideal conditions, describing a storybook summer that combined dry heat with chilly nights, stressing the vines just so, allowing maturation and concentration to develop flawlessly. This is a special wine!

    Jonathan Cristaldi
    Editor-in-Chief, Wine Access
    Contributing Writer,     Food & Wine