2021 Val Des Rois Cotes Du Rhone Les Allards

Val des Rois — "Valley of the King" — is nestled in the hills outside of Valréas in the Southern Rhône, one of the northernmost and coolest pockets of the appellation.

The pure limestone slopes roll through the hills and peak at over 1,300 feet in elevation, and through a combination of organic farming and cool-climate fruit, Val des Rois crafts wines of exceptional balance and purity. Winemaker Stéphane has built a reputation for proposing a markedly different approach to Rhône winemaking, one that prizes freshness and acidity where others pursue extraction and full ripeness — a philosophy Robert Parker once celebrated by calling him "one of the young, energetic Turks of Châteauneuf-du-Pape."

Les Allards is the estate's no-sulfur bottling — "sans soufre." No SO2 goes in at any stage.

To pull that off cleanly, everything happens under nitrogen, by gravity, in closed concrete tanks, on native yeast.

You get a Grenache with none of the funk people fear from natural wine and all the freshness they're after.

It's 100% Grenache — rare for a Rhône red, since most are blends — off vines pushing 80 years old. No oak touches it, so nothing sits between you and the fruit: bright brambly berries, a lift of herbal garrigue, a crunchy mineral finish.

Give it a 20-minute chill and pour it with roast lamb, grilled sausages, or a mushroom tart.