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Winemaker: Corinna Kruse
If you're looking for punch-in-the-arm, peppery wines, you've come to the right place. Our latest discovery in the southern Rhône is Corinna Kruse, an artisanal winemaker who makes full-bodied, sumptuous red blends in some of the south's finest, as-yet-undiscovered vineyards.
Kruse's plots cling to the high-altitude, chalky slopes in the Côtes de Ventoux, some 25 miles northeast of Avignon. Rich in history as well as impressive terroir, the Côtes de Ventoux presented a great opportunity for Kruse to make her winemaking dreams a reality. German by birth, Kruse found her way to Provence and spent many years wearing as many hats as possible in the wine business (as well as working with her husband, Thierry Faravel, of Domaine La Bouïssière) before establishing her own micro-domaine in 2001.
Kruse owns 8.5 hectares of vineyards, including one hectare of older-vine Grenache that sits on the eastern side of the Dentelles, closer to Mont Ventoux. Soils are very stony, with limestone and marl topsoils and clay underneath. This combination provides Kruse with concentrated, very spicy fruit that benefits both from the warmer days and nights cooled by the mistral.
Vines are raised as naturally as possible and are harvested and sorted by hand, so only the most perfectly sweet and ripe grapes make it into the final blends. Kruse aims always to capture the most natural flavors of her grapes, the personality of her terroir and the character of the vintage. Wines are fermented in temperature-controlled cement tanks, aged on fine lees and bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The Martinelle Côtes de Ventoux rouge shows great body and finesse, reminding us of a fine Châteauneuf cuvée. Depending on the vintage, it is a blend of varying percentages of Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Carignane. This full-bodied rouge is aged in cement tanks on its fine lees, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Her Beaumes de Venise cru, first produced in 2008, is a full-bodied, peppery wine with great body and cellaring potential. It hails from a unique vein of soil called Trias, which is brick red and iron-rich.