Country of Origin: France
Location: Laudun
People: Made espressly for Foncalieu
La Crosse is made from grapes taken from a variety of plots in Laudun located near St. Victor la Coste.
The vines in Laudun have a unique
characteristic that gives this wine a completely different profile from
most of the neighbors in the Côtes du Rhône: northern exposure. In
several cooler appellations, vine growers look for southern exposure
because they want to maximize the number of sunlight hours. The Laudun already has too much sun and heat. The vines facing
north give the grapes a week or 10 days more hang time. This later
harvest allows maximal maturity of the polyphenols in the
grapes – making the wine more complex and textured. Laudun
is one of the 4 villages on the west bank of the Rhône in the Gard
department authorized by reason of historically high quality and
permitted to attach their name to the Appellation Cotes du Rhône
Villages. You can distinguish the vineyards in this higher appellation
from Côtes
du Rhône by the lower organic content of the soil, literally vineyards
covered with rocks, and the altitude on the hillsides that give both
better drainage and exposition.
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