2009 Espérance
Red Blend

We named this wine in homage of a wonderful restaurant and inn in Vezelay, named L'Espérance. We used the inn as a home-base for much of our early explorations into the Rhône Valley and fell in love with the wines of the southern Rhône region. 

 

"Espérance" translates into "Hope" from French to English. With this wine, we hope to not only recreate the great red wines of southern France, but we further hope to craft a wine that will inspire your senses the way we were inspired over a decade ago. 

 

The 2009 Esperance is the fulfillment of a dream to produce a rich, red wine blend that rivals the famed wines of Gigondas, in the southern Rhône Valley, while retaining an Andrew Murray Vineyards 'house style'.  This vintage was given a more serious winemaking regimen with more new oak. I also chose a bigger Syrah to blend in with the Grenache and Mourvedre, so the resulting wine is a bit more profound. I believe this is perhaps the best Espérance that we have ever released. All of the extra effort has yielded a rich, concentrated wine with aromas and flavors of ultra-ripe strawberries, black cherries, and blueberries, mixed in with the spiciness of cinnamon and vanilla from the toasty new French oak. We chose to close the bottle with the Stelvin ScrewCap to preserve the freshness and avoid 'off' flavors. It is a blend of 60% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 15% Mourvedre that is 100% delicious.

 

450 cases produced