Three Peaks, Cotes du Roussillon

Three Peaks is named after the three peaks which overlook the vineyards - Pic de Nouolous, Roc de France and Pic de Canigou. It also refers back to the Three Peaks of Jonathan's native Yorkshire.

A full-bodied red blended from Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache which has been partially aged in barriques to provide a balanced wine ready for drinking upon release but which benefits from ageing for 1-7 years.

Dark ruby in colour. Aromas of mixed berries and Caribbean spices with a hint of saddle leather. The wine is rich and complex with berry fruits leading to stony minerals and a long spicy finish. 

Three Peaks was chosen by the Roussillon Wine Export Board (CIVR) to represent the best of Roussillon wines for 2007/08. We were both surprised and flattered to have our first vintage recognised by the local wine authority.

Recommended by the Irish Business News 26/10/08 as the standout wine of the Dublin French Wine Fair.

The pick of the bunch was the Domaine Treloar, Three Peaks Cotes du Roussillon 2006 (91 points) which is an astoundingly intense and savoury grenache, syrah and mourvedre blend that would shame many a Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Thomas Clancy

Recommended in the Guide Hachette 2009.

Jamie Goode's review reads as follows:

Domaine Treloar Three Peaks 2006 Cotes du Roussillon, France
This attractive southern French red is the inaugural vintage from this producer, a Kiwi-English collaboration farming just 10 hectares in the Roussillon. It's a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. A concentrated wine with sweet-yet-focused red and black fruits with a spicy lift. There's a distinctly savoury, spicy quality to this wine which has enough tannin and acidity to keep it quite fresh. Finishes distinctly savoury and quite grippy. A food-friendly style that may develop nicely over the next few years. 90/100

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Viticulture

Old Grenache vines grown on chalky limestone east-facing slopes and pruned in the Gobelet fashion. Shoot thinning is carried out to remove the shaded stems in spring and summer.

Mourvedre on sandy clay, seaward-facing slopes. Pruned to a single Cordon on trellis. Summer trimming is kept to a minimum to preserve leaf-area and significant bunch-thinning takes place at veraison.

Syrah is trellised in Cordon Royat on the exposed stony plateau of Pougerault. The vines producing the fruitiest grapes are selected for this wine.

All harvesting is done by hand and bunch selection takes place in the vineyard.

Winemaking

Each variety and vineyard parcel is vinified separately.

De-stemmed without crushing, chilled and fermented in open-top steel and concrete tanks. Maceration is a combination of manual punch-down and pumping over. The grapes are left on their skins for several days after fermentation until the tannins reach the ideal level.

The must is pressed gently and the press wine separated. The wine is transferred to a carefully selected range of new and older French oak barriques where it undergoes spontaneous malolactic fermentation and rests on its lees for at least 9 months.

The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. As a result, it loses no flavours or aromas and may form a sediment in bottle on ageing.