Château de Beaucastel 2001 comes from an excellent Rhône vintage -  wines of power and structure and a nice silky texture - and the southern Rhône (including Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe) was outstanding.

Beaucastel's vineyards are based on the famous rounded stones called galets that were deposited in times when the Rhône river raged as a torrent, tearing fragments of rocks from the Alps onto the plains. The galets soak up the intense heat during the summer ripening months and release it during the evenings. 

The Perrin brothers, the current owners of Beaucastel's 100 hectares, do not use chemical fertilisers, preferring to use a compost made on the property from a mixture of sheep manure and the previous year's pressings (marc) which helps to maintain the soil's own natural equilibrium.

"Beaucastel has been on a terrific qualitative roll over the last four vintages...This inky/ruby/purple-colored cuvee offers a classic Beaucastel bouquet of new saddle leather, cigar smoke, roasted herbs, black truffles, underbrush, and blackberry as well as cherry fruit. It is a superb, earthy expression of this Mourvedre-dominated cuvee." eRobertParker.com (Feb 2004)