Vacqueyras
Vacqueyras is a dreamy village in the Vaucluse, east of Orange.
The village is proud of the troubadour Raimbaut, who conquered France hundreds of years ago from Vacqueyras. He is honored with a bust that you can find at the entrance of the village. Until recently, the cooperative was also called the Troubadour. The village has two pubs, a bakery, a pharmacy and a small campsite. The pub in the middle of the village has a beautiful terrace under very old plane trees. After a whole morning of wine tasting at different producers, it is very pleasant to drink a beer in the shade of those plane trees! Wine tasting makes you thirsty, especially when it comes to young wines. The area of the Vacqueyras appellation also extends over the municipality of Sarrian. In 1990 the Vacqueyras wines were upgraded to an appellation Locale and were given the same level as, for example, Châteauneuf du Pape. That upgrade did not come out of the blue. The quality of the Vacueyras wines has long stood out among connoisseurs. In 1983, Duijker wrote: “… the wines here belong to the very best of the appellation (then Côtes du Rhône Villages) … pleasantly nuanced”. The village has a cooperative that makes pleasant, smooth wines, as well as numerous private producers and a few traders.
The Grenache
The Grenache grape is dominant for the red wines, the proportion is often 60 to 70%. The Grenache is usually supplemented with Syrah and Mouvèdre. A single winegrower uses 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah. (Cuvée Ermite from Château Montmirail is a good example of this). Sometimes the wine undergoes some wood aging. Due to the large number of producers and their own way of making wine, a Vacqueyras can be found for every moment. The wine is usually good to drink after 3 years and can be stored for 3 to 4 years from the time it is ripe.
Neighbor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Vacqueyras is located in the southern part of the Rhone, right next to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The wines are deep in color with a spicy finish and very similar to their prestigious neighbor. The grape varieties used are mostly Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault, so comparable to the grapes used for Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The big advantage is that these wines are not that well known and you can therefore buy a beautiful Rhône wine for only a fraction of the price of a Châteauneuf-du-Pape.