Les Cassagnes de la Nerthe Cotes du Rhone Villages, 2015

Chateau la Nerthe, of course, is a Chateauneuf du Pape estate; this is a CDR Villages from vineyards just north of Orange and Avignon.

Deep, dark, purplish. Although the wine has been aged, according to tradition, in concrete vats, it has also spent 12 months in four-year-old 228-liter barrels.. Ripe black fruit smells and flavors. Fruity and delicious, but a bit too New World for my taste. Lacks the peppery rustic tannins I expect from a good Cotes du Rhone. By the end of the meal, I could identify it as a CDR Villages. I suspect that most of the qualities I most desire in a Southern Rhone will start showing up with four or five years of aging.