After a cool start to the year, in spite of a cool rainy spring we had a relatively good flowering, and then a long dry period in July, August and September. Harvest was dry right up until 3 days before we picked this vineyard, and then we had two solid days of rain.

The nose is more complex that our main wine and is more perfumed, spicy and delicate. This year's use of a brand new 'Icone' barrel - Seguin Moreau's top-of-the-range longer-seasoned French oak has imparted a richer, more generously vanilla-y nose than normal, but we still find the same layers of raspberry and wild strawberry, with wafts of rosemary and fennel. There's also hints of slatey minerals and even a note of iodine.

Initially soft, and quite shy the palate slowly unveils an array of delicate red fruits like wild strawberries and red fruit pastilles. The gentle vanillas, and subtle seasoned oak cushion a delicate almost Pinot/Tempranillo fruit, and echoes of garrigue herbs and fennel keep intriguing a palate of surprising length and complexity.

Les Genoux is less intensely coloured than the regular cuveé, as it contains 10-15% white and pink grapes.

Excellent on its own as a 'vino di meditazione' (best appreciated with a good friend), Les Genoux is also a wonderful match for charcuterie (especially finnochiona, or fennel salami), and the perfumed, elegant style makes it pretty versatile.

At pressing, the wine was drained into a single 500L Seguin Moreau 'Icone' barrel, and the pressings blended with other Grenache pressings in a 225L barrel. After 18 months of ageing, the 500L Icone, and the 225L pressings barrel were blended together to create the Les Genoux cuvée.

After 2 days of rain, and with more bad weather on the way, we picked the Coume de Roy block on the 11th October - just in time to avoid the catastrophic rains and subsequent floods on the 15th October. We suffered a little dilution, but harvested a clean and healthy crop.

This vintage was due to be bottled in late March, but the bottling was cancelled, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. We re-scheduled the bottling for early June.