The 'Les Six' Cairanne is a full-flavoured and complex red, radiating with typical freshness and elegance from its hillside vineyards. Packed with peppery red and black fruit flavours, it has a plush texture and supple tannins that create a deliciously vibrant and expressive finish. Perfectly paired with roasted chicken and lamb dishes or robustly flavoured vegetarian fare.

Critic Review

Decanter Magazine: 90Pts
Drinking Window: 2023 - 2028

"Expressive, detailed, complex nose, layered with spices, herbs and berry fruits. Soft, juicy, approachable style that's not overly tannic like so many 2022 Cairannes. Well balanced. Certainly firm, so give this a little time to settle. Also contains 5% each of Carignan, Counoise and Cinsault."
Matt Walls

About the Producer

Boutinot’s love affair with the Southern Rhône spans thirty years of making wine in the region. In 2010, the relationship was sealed with the purchase of a winery and vineyards above the village of Cairanne. Domaine Boutinot’s seven vineyards are planted with classic southern Rhône grape varieties – old vine Grenache Noir and Syrah, Mourvèdre and Carignan Noir – and they all sit within the Cairanne Cru boundaries, sanctioned in 2016 when Cairanne was granted its own appellation status.

Working with their vigneron neighbours Boutinot are helping to revive traditional grape varieties such as Cinsault and Counoise. In the cellar they use the time-honoured winemaking methods such as a long cuvasion aided only by natural yeasts, gentle remontage, manual pigeage and patient maturation in a nursery of French oak barrels.

Vineyard and Winery

The slopes above the village of Cairanne are bedecked with treasure troves of well-established vineyards, steeped in the classic terroir of ‘agrilo-calcaire’ (chalky clay) and bristling with parcels of low-yielding old vines, some of very rare and ancient grape varieties. The six varieties, some familiar (Grenache Noir, Syrah, Mourvèdre) and others less so (Cinsault, Counoise and Carignan Noir) are hand-picked and hand-sorted to ensure perfect ripeness. Some varieties are co-fermented for greater complexity and all are fermented in large 6,000 litre oak vats by the natural yeasts present on the grape skins. Vinification is traditional, aided by manual pigeage and gentle remontage. Les Six was later assembled and matured in the same tronconique for 10 months and bottled at Domaine Boutinot’s cellars in Cairanne. This is a new style of Cairanne which, thanks to the ancient varieties included in the assemblage, is also a Cairanne whose heart holds dear the traditions of yesteryear.