First, I have to give props to my little buddy, @Marc_Frontario, who found this little gem.
Warm soft spices and garrigue. Wafts of plummy fruits. Some meat broth aromas. Palate is lovely, nice balance with acids and soft fruits, chewy dusty tannins. Vein of dusty earth. A delish mouth-coating finish with sweet black licorice notes. Lots of flavor here at a wonderful budget price. A case-worthy purchase. This is my third bottle in two weeks. Should probably grab cases, plural.
I’ve never seen that Pegau Côtes du Rhône in my market (or for that matter any CdR from Pegau).
But my Fort Collins CO wine shops do regularly carry a fairly extensive selection of Côtes du Rhône and I keep lots of them around for a change of pace/tastes to rotate in with my other wines. And, unlike some of the “bigger” Chateauneuf du Pape wines I occasionally drink (but mostly cellar these days) it’s rare that I am hit with a “hot” Côtes du Rhône after pulling the cork.
Pegau actually makes a few CDRs, I just don’t seem to see them around that often. A local retailer used to carry the.Plan Pegau CDR that I would buy with regularity, but then it just disappeared. This bottling is a step above.
This is in the PA system for $19. I’m not a customer as I’m not buying wine, but the tasting note is wild - presumably translated by a machine.
“Born under an Osage orange tree, the Cuvée Maclura Côtes du Rhône calls for the greediness of the fruit revealing a blend of spices with delicate tannins. Designed with respect for the traditions of the south, this cuvée is like our grandmothers’ cuisine : generous and full of life.”
My company, Hand Picked Selections (I sold it in 2022 but remain involved) has imported this since the first vintage, 2012. $20 is regular retail.
Some background:
In 2012 Laurence Feraud had just taken over running Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf from her father, Paul. She was a single mother with a teenage son and a teenage daughter. She was also running her negociant business, Selection Laurence Feraud as well as jointly running the negociant business Feraud – Brunel with Andre Brunel. She was a painter, with a gallery show in Avignon, trying to get the show into Paris.
She had a problem: She couldn’t figure out what to do with her spare time.
So she bought a 100 acre Cotes du Rhone vineyard.
Chateau Pegau Cotes du Rhone ‘Cuvee Maclura’ at ~5000 cases is the majority of the production. There is also Chateau Pegau Cotes du Rhone – Villages ‘Cuvee Setier’, Chateau Pegau Cotes du Rhone Blanc ‘Cuvee Lone’, Pink Pegau, and most of the fruit for Plan Pegau, a non-vintage red Vin de France made solera style. I usually (not always) prefer Plan Pegau to the Cotes du Rhones. The current release is Lot #19-20-21, referring to the vintages in the bottle (along with a little older wine going back decades). Alfert’s mileage apparently varies, which is fine.
To Kevin Porter: The tasting note was probably translated by Laurence Feraud herself, not a machine. Her command of the English language is not under control.
Please feel free to post or PM me with any questions about any of these wines, or Pegau Chateauneuf.
I have had the Plan Pegau, but I do not recall liking it as much as the '21 Maclura…though Im not sure which vintage I tasted. Will have to look in the the Cuvee Setier…Nice overview, TY🍷
Just chiming in again to say the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Côtes du Rhône I’ve been opening the past couple years have all been really nice daily drinkers, with plenty going on in the glass. Great values.
Dan, thanks so much for all of this detail. I liked the Plan Pegau quite a lot, but did not recal knowing that it was a Solera blend, which actually does explain why I always thought it was a fairly evolved and quaffable wine. Definitely willing to try the upper cuvee as well.
The neck label of Plan Pegau has a clock / sundial on it, with four hands. One points to ‘20’, the other three point to the three vintages that form the majority of the wine. A small quantity of older wine is also blended in. Like the Chateauneuf ‘Cuvee Laurence’, it is released as ready to drink. Unlike Laurence, it sells for ~$20+, not triple digits.
Not sure why that is surprising. WDC certainly has an odd model, but I’ve bought tons of interesting wines from them and specifically Pegau, Coudolet, and Beaucastel, as well as some decent Northern Rhones like JC Marsanne and Faury, so they certainly have good Rhone wines at times. As the deals have dried up I quit buying, but did recently place an order for Charvin CdR Poutet for way under W-S all-in, my first order in quite some time.
Big fan of Pegau, and often of the lesser wines of great producers, but somehow I’ve never loved the Pegau CdR offerings. I may have to give it another try though if I see this or the Plan for a good price.
Wine.com. In the “deals and coupons” thread there is a ton of discussion of their unconventional business model starting around the time of Covid. While their stated price on most wines is very high, with coupons and cashback websites it was possible to obtain absurdly low prices for quite a long time. Very, very low prices, often 50-60% of W-S low. That seems to be mostly a thing of the past now.
