Tardieu-Laurent, Côtes du Rhône (Rhône Valley, France) 2017

 I would love to meet Michel Tardieu based on the descriptions in the company website.  The prose is intensely romantic, but light on details.  Despite a careful search, it was hard to find verifiable details about much of the history of the company.  The name comes from the original partners Michel Tardieu from the Rhône Valley and Dominique Laurent from Burgundy.  Together, they created a négociant business in the Rhône Valley.  As négociants, they don’t grow grapes but work with growers who supply the grapes.  Although they are no longer partners Tardieu retained the company name.  Actually, the origin story doesn’t really matter because I loved this wine.  It turned out that 2017 was a challenging vintage, but the grapes that made it to harvest were of good quality.  The resulting wine is 60 percent Syrah and 40 percent Grenache with a perfect balance of Syrah’s power and structure, and Grenache’s generous, strawberry fruit.  Or, as stated on their website, “This, by the grace of Old Grenache, which brought to the highest level the singular personality of the real Rhône Wine.”  (See what I mean about the prose?)  The wine spent ten months in concrete tanks and saw no oak.  It is a delicious wine, fruity, spicy, savory, balanced and well structured.