Chateau Pesquie, Terasses Rouge 2020

91 points Wine Enthusiast
"This is a solid regional example that boasts heady notes of ripe pomegranate and wild strawberries, framed by sweet spices and a firm stony minerality. Certified organic. European Cellars.

90 points Wine Spectator
"Ripe, but with a breezy edge as damson plum and bitter cherry notes glide through, laced with underlying mineral and floral details. Light kiss of toast on the finish. Grenache and Syrah."

Vinous Reverie Notes
Jancis Robinson - Previous Wine of the Week
"I spent a year in Ventoux country in the 1970s. The wines, pale reds and pinks, were still pretty rustic and bracing, and it was still difficult then to encounter the name without thinking of the British cyclist Tommy Simpson who met his match there during the Tour de France.
This is modern Côtes du Ventoux, from an extensive and thoroughly renovated 72-hectare family property on which the Chaudières obviously have the confidence to invest in all the right things: large, modern winery, good landscaping, lutte raisonnée (verging-on-organic viticulture), good-quality oak, own bottling line, etc, etc.
Sheltered from the cold north wind, the vineyards slope southwards at a reasonably high altitude (around 500m) on gravels and pebbly soils. Les Terrasses is their basic bottling, but even this blend of 60 per cent Grenache and 40 per cent Syrah is made from vines which have been dug into the local Provençal landscape for between four and six decades. Only eight per cent of this 'simple' cuvée was matured in barrel but the fruit is so intense (and, I suspect, yields so relatively low) that the wine strikes me as being ideally drunk between 2003 and 2005.
It's a much deeper crimson than the Ventoux average (though not as exaggeratedly so as their two superior cuvées, Prestige and Quintessence) and has all the broad, concentrated, spicy appeal of a southern Rhône wine with a slightly subalpine lift. Rich, flattering and racy – not bad for a wine that can be bought for a song..."
Remarkably consistent in even the most challenging vintages, Les Terrasses Rouge benefits from being sourced from vineyards scattered around the foothills of Mont Ventoux. These protected microclimates are warm during the day and cool at night. Due to their elevation, these sites are protected from stray summer storms that can devastate other parts of the Rhône valley. The limestone-rich soils, where Syrah does particularly well makes for a bright, lively wine with enticing red fruit flavors and aromas of garrigue – thyme and rosemary.