Producer: Capucine

Château Capucine, Rhône Valley (France)

Christophe Coste must be far and away the most dynamic winemaker in the recently elevated Côtes du Rhône Village of Signargues. Apart from being a former president of the syndicate there, he makes a range of stunningly good wines. Everything has been done organically since day one when Christophe was part of the Terra Vitis movement. Now he has full Ecocert-ification.

In 2008, Christophe purchased a single hectare plot of old-vine Grenache in the Gallimardes sector in the south of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. An early barrel sample (the wine is raised in second year barrels), showed immense promise but the bottled wine, a year on, was even better. The critics agreed.

Christophe was almost certainly the first winemaker in the Rhône Valley to use a sorting machine which sorts the grapes according to potential alcohol so that only grapes with a potential of more than a chosen alcohol degree (eg.14%) can be fermented in one tank whilst grapes with lower sugars go to a different tank. This way the best part of the harvest goes through a longer maceration period.

Fermentation takes place in steel tanks which are mounted horizontally and rotate gently on a central axis to assist in mixing the skins throughout the fermenting mass. Furthermore the tanks are constructed in such a way that they can empty themselves for mass when the free run wine has left the tank and the cover at the end is removed. This system is called "vinimatic"

Frequently asked questions

We discovered wine when making a last grand tour of Europe before settling down to our careers. The old VW camper van inevitably kept breaking down and we found ourselves with time on our hands in the Loire, Bordeaux and, especially, the Rhône. There were only so many rivers to jump into to cool down in that hot summer so we started tasting wine - real wine, not the stuff we had been buying in the supermarkets. We returned to England knowing we would be starting a specialist wine import business importing from the Southern Rhône before expanding the list along with our interests to include a range of excellent mid-price Burgundy, Languedoc, Loire...

The decision to focus on France initially came about for two main reasons:

1. France still offers the highest quality and widest range of styles of wine of any wine-producing country;

2. By concentrating on a smaller geographical area it is possible to offer better value.

Since then, we have succumbed to the allure of Italy and have found some amazing wines from Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto and, more recently, Basilicata and Puglia in the far south, all superb wines at affordable prices. Great food wines too so, whatever you are eating, you will find something to match it here.

Some restrictions we place on ourselves: only buy wines direct from the producers and sell by the (mixed) case to offer the best prices throughout the UK for wines of this quality. Also, and perhaps most important, only buy wines we like to drink ourselves.

Wines are stored in a temperature-controlled bonded warehouse so they never suffer overheating and dried-out corks which can so easily spoil good wines bought from shops and supermarkets. As we don't have a shop, our overheads are low which in turn enables us to keep our prices as low as possible.

Furthermore, unlike many other internet wine merchants, The Big Red Wine Company will mix cases at no extra charge.

We can store your wines at our bonded warehouse in Basildon for £8 plus VAT per case per year.

We will work quickly to ship your order as soon as possible. Once your order has shipped, you will receive an email with further information. Delivery times vary depending on your location.

Most wines can be purchased "in bond". This means that you only pay for the wine itself until you remove it from storage, at which time you will pay the duty and VAT at the prevailing rates together with any shipping charges. If a wine does not have an "in bond" price, please ask if you are interested in purchasing it this way as all wines are stored at the bond until sold.

Delivery is free on all orders over £200.
Otherwise, delivery is charged at £10 per delivery address for orders between £50 and £200.
Whilst we accept orders under £50, the delivery charge is £20 to cover the costs charged to us by the bonded warehouse.

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Château Capucine, Rhône Valley (France)

Château Capucine, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2009

Frequently asked questions