2004 in the Rhône Valley
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The shell-shock felt when the 2003 Rhônes were
unleashed on an unsuspecting public is still echoing
around the world. Some wines produced in the vintage
boasted natural levels of alcohol of 17%+ and such
things are just not experienced very often. The fact
that some of these wines actually come across as
being in balance has made more than just this wine
merchant go back to the drawing board and pencil in a
few fresh parameters under the heading “The
Outer Limits of What Is Acceptable in Fine
Wine”.
N.B. We’ve had some Pégaü knocking
around company stock for a while, awaiting decisive
action to get it slipped into an offer. When we first
tasted it at the domaine roughly a year after the
vintage, the stuff was still fermenting and Laurence
had had to add some cultured yeast to keep that sugar
turning into alcohol. Wild yeasts go all groggy at 15
– 15.5% alcohol and stop working (don’t
we all?!) and one cannot leave a red wine with
unfermented sugar in it. Robert Parker’s doing
cartwheels (see below) over the result.
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But enough of ’03. We’re here to
celebrate its immediate successor and it is easy to
imagine that celebrating is exactly what the growers
were doing, faced with something far less
extraordinary (in the true sense of the word), less
demanding, more comprehensible, than its forebear.
What made it so much easier to cope with was the
temperature. Once again, there was drought during the
growing season, but thermometers were a great deal
kinder.
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So who will like these wines? What’s the style
of the vintage? And will it keep?
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I don’t think it would be unfair to say that
lovers of the wines of burgundy would get on very
well with this Rhône vintage. Those that
sometimes find drinking Rhône wine akin to
chewing a mouthful of sand into which some dusty
herbs have been stirred; those that find
“Rhône” and
“agriculture” closely filed in their
consciousness; those that prefer their pheasants hung
for just a day or two, rather waiting for the first
maggot to drop from their plumage before firing up
the range (as practiced in Victorian times).
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These are, at least in the south - where the
triumvirate appellations of Vacquéras, Gigondas and
Châteauneuf-du-Pape allow the Grenache variety
to hold sway – cool, supple, clear-voiced,
clean-limbed and (hold the
‘phone!) elegant wines. These will drink
relatively soon, but, in the main, won’t have
any problem ageing into the medium term plus.
In the north – and here we’re talking
about what is fundamentally a completely different
wine growing region, don’t forget – the
picture is a little different. Whilst there is great
homogeneity in the Mediterranean wines of the south,
one has to pick one’s way carefully through the
north of the valley. At their worst, the Syrah-based
reds of the Northern Rhône are the product of
vines that were allowed to run riot, producing
massive crops of fruit that struggled for ripeness.
Lacking in fruit, but not short of rather green
tannin, these are wines that encouraged thorough
spitting during our selection tastings!
At the other end of the scale, one can find examples
that fit very closely with my perfect blueprint for
Northern Rhône syrah: crisp-and-rich, peppery,
intense liquids that will last and last. After the
truffle-grubbing, front row, grubby-kneed,
muscle-bound wines of 2003, here we find their
stylistic opposite; wines that gleam like sunlight
through stained glass. Perhaps they’ll never
inspire open-mouthed awe, but the best of these are
very beautiful indeed.
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The Wines
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A
baked road in the flat valley bottom that is the
southern Rhone
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Domaine
Tardieu-Laurent
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This outfit has quickly become a world player in the
Rhône stakes. Dominique Laurent some of you
will already know as a the
patissier: an
ex-pastry chef with a well-established, high quality
negociant business in the Côte d’Or (where reasonably
fresh gossip finds him decamping into the arms of
Sylvie Esmonin, a noted
Gevrey producer, and fathering her child).
In the Rhône, he has teamed up with Michel
Tardieu and, as in Burgundy, has formed close working
relationships with some very fine grape growers.
These are natural wines that haven’t been
messed about with. They are unfined and unfiltered and can
thus express most clearly their origins. Tasting the
wines, one finds that this expression is communicated
with great confidence: these are powerful, rich and
profound wines.
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| Vintage |
Wine |
Drink dates |
Case size |
Price
IB |
Notes |
Order |
| 2004 |
Hermitage, Tardieu-Laurent, Northern Rhône, France |
2013-2020 |
12x75cl |
£420.00 |
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| 2004 |
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes, Tardieu-Laurent, Southern Rhône, France |
2010-2020 |
12x75cl |
£294.00 |
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| 2004 |
Vacquéras Vieilles Vignes, Tardieu-Laurent, Southern Rhône, France |
2008-2018 |
12x75cl |
£156.00 |
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Straight up for Condrieu!
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Eric & Joël Durand
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“And here's another name to look for, Joël
Durand…”, so says Jancis Robinson in the
web-based Purple Pages. I didn’t have to look
out for him, as I’d already found him and what
a delightful meeting it was. The Durands have 6 hectares in
Cornas and 4 in St Joseph. They do those modern
things, like picking very late, which prevent the
wine from tasting like a bit of granite that’s
been wrapped in leather and then dipped in tar. These
are ripe, broad-shouldered wines that allow the syrah
grape to focus its steely gaze on the soil in which
it’s been grown.
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One of the southern villages of the
Côtes-du-Rhône: Cairanne
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Alain Voge
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Here’s a venerable old name in the Cornas
appellation, recently given even greater credentials
(beyond simply having produced one of the best wines
of the appellation for many years!) through the
employment of Albéric
Mazoyers as winemaker (he used
to be in charge of technical stuff at Chapoutier).
Cornas
is the most southerly
appellation of the northern Rhône Valley and
makes what some consider to be the most typical
representation of French syrah. In the past, this
meant that it gave one the impression that one was
sucking a handful of sharp sand for the first 30
years of its evolution, after which it tasted like 8
week old, sun-bloated badger that’s been
tarred, feathered and then set alight. No more. The
potential of this noble region is being unlocked
through modern viticultural and vinification processes and one
is being presented with one of the finest
interpretations of fermented syrah juice.
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The slopes of Côte-Rôtie loom above the town
of Ampuis
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Chapoutier
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A great deal has been said about this historic
estate, particularly since the generation change in
the late eighties that instigated a flight to
quality, thrusting it to the forefront of quality
wine production, not simply in France, but in world
terms.
Two ranges of wine are made here: the “basic
cuvées” and what Michel Chapoutier calls
the “séléctions
parcellaires”, effectively single-vineyard
wines intended to express terroir as closely as
possible. Both Chapoutier offerings on this document
are taken from this latter group.
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| Vintage |
Wine |
Drink dates |
Case size |
Price
IB |
Notes |
Order |
| 2004 |
St Joseph Les Granits Blanc, Chapoutier, Northern Rhône, France |
2008-2015 |
6x75cl |
£120.00 |
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| 2004 |
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Croix de Bois, Chapoutier, Southern Rhône, France |
2011-2020 |
6x75cl |
£135.00 |
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The bridge at Tain, with the Hill of Hermitage behind
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Domaine Saint Cosme
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To quote Robert Parker in his latest edition of The
Wine Advocate,”Proprietor
Louis Barruol is one of
the two finest producers of Gigondas…”. At their best, the
wines of this appellation – a
Côtes-du-Rhône village until 1971, when
the wines were recognised as having such inherent
quality that they gained their own appellation
– rival those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
This information is now firmly in the public domain
and prices are catching up.
Saint Cosme is typical of
an increasing number of wine estates in France in
that it has developed a negociant arm to pad out its
own vineyard holdings. Fruit is bought in from pet
growers throughout the valley and the resultant wine
is marketed under the name “Saint Cosme”, rather than the
“Château Saint Cosme” applied to its
domaine wines.
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| Vintage |
Wine |
Drink dates |
Case size |
Price
IB |
Notes |
Order |
| 2004 |
Côte-Rôtie, Saint Cosme, Northern Rhône, France |
2009-2018 |
12x75cl |
£312.00 |
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| 2004 |
Gigondas, Saint Cosme, Southern Rhône, France |
2008-2017 |
12x75cl |
£126.00 |
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| 2004 |
Gigondas Valbelle, Saint Cosme, Southern Rhône, France |
2010-2020 |
12x75cl |
£231.00 |
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The village of Gigondas
– one of the prettiest in the valley –
with its back to the peaks of the Dentelles and its feet clad in
antique bush vines
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Domaine du Pégaü
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There are producers in Châteauneuf who are
trying to modernise the style of the wine of this
ancient appellation (the oldest AC in France, indeed)
and good luck to them, I say. I would even go as far
as suggesting that Châteauneuf fans get out and
try them, as among their number are some really
excellent bottles. However, when you look to drink
Châteauneuf – Châteauneuf of the
old school: brooding, gamy, wild and untameable
– one turns to Pégaü and a handful
of other estates that are producing benchmark
examples of the highest order. We are herewith
offering two vintages of this wine.
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| Vintage |
Wine |
Drink dates |
Case size |
Price
IB |
Notes |
Order |
| 2003 |
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réserve, Domaine de Pégau, Southern Rhône, France |
2012-2025 |
12x75cl |
£258.00 |
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| 2004 |
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée, Domaine de Pégau, Southern Rhône, France |
2013-2025 |
12x75cl |
£261.00 |
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Tasting in the cellar at Pégaü
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Clos des
Papes
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From the sublime to…the sublime! There is some
excitement to be had in offering, back-to-back, two
of the finest estates of an appellation and in a
vintage of real distinction. Two wines are made at
this estate: a red and a white. No
super-cuvées; no second wines. The style is
ripe and liquor-like: a muscular red deer stag in an
aristocrat’s park, making a fine counterpoint
to the Pégaü
above, which is more of a rutting wildebeest.
A quick note on the Avril’s white wine. This
is absolutely delicious when it’s young; full
of summery flavours: yellow cherry, tangerine and
flowers, with a texture like the most
freshly-pressed, ripest pear juice. Parker states
that it should be drunk within the first two years of
its life, but this is a classic white Rhône in
that it should be drunk early, or it should be drunk
late. It between, it closes down and is a waste of
time. You pick!
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| Vintage |
Wine |
Drink dates |
Case size |
Price
IB |
Notes |
Order |
| 2004 |
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Clos des Papes, Paul Avril, Southern Rhône, France |
2013-2025 |
12x75cl |
£300.00 |
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| 2004 |
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Clos des Papes, Paul Avril, Southern Rhône, France |
2009-2016 |
12x75cl |
£282.00 |
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The rather smart barrel cellar at Clos des Papes.
Note the differing sizes of container
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Clos du Mont
Olivet
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The rise of the luxury cuvée in
Châteauneuf is the cause for much debate. Is it
driving the quality of the top wines of the
appellation into the uppermost echelons of the global
fine wine market, or is it undermining the quality of
the bread-and-butter cuvées; the foundations
on which stands entire Châteauneuf edifice?
Personally, I have no idea. It’ll all work out
in the end. In the meantime, allow me to introduce
you to this wine: one of the top brass, with added
palate-ability due to the fact that the owners of
Mont Olivet aren’t taking the mickey with the price.
I bought a case of this wine of the 1990 vintage.
We’re talking a long time ago now. It cost me
£155 and is now trading over a thousand pounds
ex VAT. Be that as it may, the 1990 was akin to port
for the first decade-and-a-bit of its life, before
losing its puppy fat and transmogrifying into one of
the most intense Châteauneuf experiences
I’ve had to date. This is what it’s all
about, right here.
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The vineyards of Cornas
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Domaine de la Charbonnière
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Typical of the appellation, Michel Maret’s
Charbonnière runs a
highly parcellated portfolio of vineyard holdings,
including all the main differing terroirs of Châteauneuf.
One is never very sure what the term “Vieilles
Vignes” is intimating, not being controlled by
law. In this case, however, we’re talking about
wizened, hoary old plants 80 years old plus, which,
in my humble opinion, means that they’re
perfectly entitled to the term. Most producers would
have practiced euthanasia long ago, since the older a
vine becomes, the less fruit it produces (and,
conversely, the more concentrated, better quality the
fruit there from). 80 year old vines prove one thing:
that their owner is intent on producing the best
possible wine from his vineyards. So that’s
nice, then. Here’s Robert Parker on the
domaine: “This property has been a marvellous
discovery…This is an impressive, largely
unknown estate.” I came, I saw, I concurred.
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A pertinent message on and old barrel-end:
“Water is polluted, drink wine”
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Domaine Giraud
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Tasting at Giraud is a
family affair. Monsieur sits expansively on a chair,
the family pooch at his feet, whilst son and
daughter, both boiler-suited, run around fetching
samples and standing by for one’s verdict on
each one poured. This might be intimidating if the
wines were rubbish. Thankfully one’s
appreciative noises don’t have to be feigned in
any way, as these are very, very proper Châteauneufs.
It’s good to see a family winery where the next
generation have no thoughts other than continuing the
business. The Giraud
daughter is the first of the family to graduate from
Oenology college and it is she that looks after the
wine making. Her brother tends the vineyards, some of
which are planted on Roman ruins.
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This is me tasting in the cellar at Pégaü. On more than
one occasion I have ended up dipping my nose in the
sample…and it’s nothing to be ashamed
of!
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