1 LEFT! Domaine de Trévallon Rouge | 2021

My first experience with Provence’s beloved Domaine de Trévallon was at Zuni Café in San Francisco; we were celebrating a friend’s fortieth over a very well-priced bottle of the 1987 rouge. It stamped its memory in my Rolodex of magical wines. No tasting note survived those ripening years of mine, just the moment of something perfectly rustic, tingling with weeping plants & trees that belonged on a postcard. The quintessential bistro red. Roast chicken, mandatory.

A couple of weekends ago, a few of our longtime guests and I gathered at Vinya to remember a friend who had passed. Among the familiar faces were Amanda & Brendan, accomplished professionals and notorious wine lovers whose travels read like a Kermit Lynch memoir. Wandering the shop, they spotted the 2021 Trévallon and asked about it. I hadn’t tasted the new vintage, and I mistakenly let my bias fog my judgment. Southern French reds from that year have consistently let me down with their underripe fruits and shaky legs, and I was worried Trévallon would too. I was being a hypocrite of my own mantra: producer-over-vintage, producer-over-vintage! 

The next day, the bottle kept staring at me, like the eyes of a mother. Guilt found its way. I tapped the bottle with the Coravin and went searching for the awkwardness I’d manifested. Nothing. Just loads of shrubbery & fruit brushed with watercolors of frail flowers and crackling spice. Cabernet & Syrah twirling seamlessly and having fun, like they were meant to be together. I kept going back for another smell, then another, and another; repeat. How dare I doubt an icon. How dare I doubt Trévallon? Amanda & Brendan, I think you’ll like this one. ~Allegra Angelo