Cote Rotie Champet 2009

Tom and I are making a whistle-stop voyage down the Rhône valley this week to catch up with vigneron friends and get an insight into the Rhône 2009 vintage, of which we have heard great promise.  After driving south from Lyon in heavy rain on Sunday evening we started tasting bright and early on Monday in Côte Rôtie with our old chum Patrick Jasmin.  Tasting through the constituent parts of Patrick’s wine is always a pleasure, the 2009 shows huge potential with a wealth of violet and red berry aromas, a deep core of sweet black fruit, fine tannic structure and a bright acidity.  All the ingredients are here for a Grand Vin.  Patrick only makes one cuvée of Côte Rôtie and the 2009 should be a tub-thumper.

A tad further north on La Viallière climat of the Côte Brune, Joël and Romain Champet’s single vineyard 2009 Côte Rôtie is already finished and ready for bottling.  This is an Old School northern Rhône Syrah with no new oak and an attractive bouquet of blackberries and blackcurrants, a mid-weight palate of briary hedgerow fruit and supple tannins.  This is a classic, traditional Côte Rôtie and, on past form, should represent cracking value for money.

After a welcome lunchtime pit stop at the winemakers’ favourite haunt, Le Chaudron restaurant in Tournon (great food, fabulous wine list) we drove down to Livron-sur-Drôme to sample Jean-Marie Lombard’s Brézème.  Both of Jean Marie’s Syrahs were showing very well from cask.  The Grand Chêne is dense and dark with autumnal fruit aromas and tastes over pitchy tannins.  The Eugène de Monicault usually exhibits a little more finesse, but is still a trifle closed at present – there is clearly lots of fruit and structure here but it needs time to integrate.

Beetling northwards back towards Cornas we rounded off a fine day’s tasting with a mammoth degustation with three generations of the Clape family (Auguste aged 85, Pierre 60 and Olivier 31).  This is a dynasty given to modesty and the Clape’s seemed almost embarrassed at the exuberance of fruit in their 2009 wines. There are notes of the blockbuster 2003 vintage here but against a more restrained background, with a fresh acidity and greater phenolic ripeness.  In short, the Clape’s 2009 wines are sensational.

Tomorrow we look forward to visits at Messrs Chave and Graillot.  Day One impressions are that Rhône 2009 is living up to the hype, bring it on!

Tasting chez Clape

Over the past few months, a new currency has been adopted in the sleepy village of Broughton Gifford and its surrounding hamlets. This came as a result of all the juggling that goes on in getting small children to and from where they should be.  Those of you who do this on a regular basis will know that, from time to time, it requires the calling-in of favours from other parents – this originally loose arrangement is now negotiated and supported by Yapp wine.

So, how does it work? The base currency and exchange rate is roughly 2 hours of childcare for one bottle of Lirac: La Fermade 2005 from La Famille Maby which, at £9.95 a bottle, is excellent value both in childcare and wine terms. Extra half hours of childminding can be arranged with different wines and vintages – it appears the Côtes du Rhône: Cuvée Personelle 2000 gets an extra hour when compared to Côtes du Rhône: Saint Gayan 2007. I’ve yet to broach how long we’d get for some Côtes du Rhône Villages Rasteau: Saint Gayan 2006 – one of my personal favourites.

The upshot of all this activity is that now, outside the school gates and the village hall, you’ll overhear parents discussing the merits of the Catalan Carignan 2007 and its 130 year old vines and how the Lirac 2005 is a little smoother than the 2007.

The big question next time we get to venture out will be – shall I “cash in” my very small number of Brézème: Eugène de Monicault 2004 bottles for a babysitter or stay in and drink in style – I suspect I already know the answer to that one.