John Livingstone-Learmonth

We were honoured last week when distinguished Rhône expert, author, journalist and creator of www.drinkrhone.com John Livingstone-Learmonth and his wife Fiona called in at our shop in Mere to pick up some Clape: Cornas (1995 and 1999 as you ask) that we have been holding for them in our customer reserves. Fortunately John had phoned ahead which gave me a chance to gather up a few bottles from newly-shipped vintages as it is always a pleasure to taste with ‘le prof’. John and Fiona were looking nicely bronzed having just returned from a marathon Rhône tasting in the Maldives in the company of Marcel Guigal and the frères Perrin.

We kicked-off with a white Lirac: La Fermade 2010 which John deemed ‘sound’ and ‘versatile’. He thought it would work well as an aperitif or with food. We then tasted the white Chave Hermitage 2008 which he thought was ‘unformed’ and ‘oakier than anticipated’ but had good potential and might develop well over the next 5-10 years. The Costières de Nîmes ‘Cuvée Prestige’ Rosé 2010 was well received ‘a touch of sweetness but does the job’ was John’s matter of fact verdict but it was trumped by the Tavel: La Forcadière 2010. John liked that so much he bought a case which I suppose is the highest praise a wine can get unless, of course, he’d bought 2 cases. We then moved onto taste a red Lirac and red Costières de Nîmes both of which were bien classique before rounding things off with the red Chave Hermitage 2008 which we both concurred is an understated and deftly-made wine in a challenging vintage.

Tavel: La Forcadière 2010

After I had arranged an impromptu ‘goodie bag’ for Fiona replete with Glen Baxter posters, T-shirts and ‘Yapp’ mugs my other great mentor, my dad, arrived and they adjourned to the Red Lion in Kilmington to sample the Butcombe Best Bitter. What John thought of that I don’t know but I doubt they keep a better beer in John’s neck of the woods in Bexhill-on-Sea. They haven’t got the terroir!

Last month we received the sad news that Isabelle Barantin had finally succumbed to the circling sharks and sold the iconic monopole vineyard of Château Grillet to François Pinault of Château Latour. I spoke to Isabelle on the phone shortly afterwards and made the mistake of congratulating her on the sale – the property had been discreetly on the market for quite some time. ‘Ne dis jamais ça’ was her terse response. Isabelle made it very clear to me that she had been a reluctant vendor – still a few million Euros in the current account must sugar the pill to some extent. While it is a shame that this unique 3.8 hectare site is passing out of a family ownership that dates back to the French Revolution at least Isabelle can leave with her head held high having restored the vineyard and wine to their full, outstanding potential during her 17 year stewardship.

Chateau Grillet estate by Jason Yapp.

I speak from direct experience as Yapp Brothers have shipped straight from the Château since the early 1970′s and I cannot think of a wine that has been more commercially controversial. Robert Parker described Château Grillet as being ‘overpriced and overrated’ in his 1997 book wines of the Rhône, which is not what you want to read when you are sitting on pallets of the stuff. For years I had a running dialogue with Jancis Robinson who doggedly catalogued its short-comings (there was even a derogatory comparison to Harrogate springs!) before she was finally won-over by the 2004 vintage: “France’s most idiosyncratic appellation, devoted to one producer with one amphitheatre of Viognier vines has been difficult to love for many vintages but in 2004 white Bordeaux wizard Denis Dubourdieu was brought in to give the wine a good scrub and here at last we have real freshness even at three years old. There’s a deeply mineral nose and then dense fruit and a wonderfully creamy finish. Even the most jaded wine enthusiast would be fascinated by this evidence of a new era at this famous white Rhône landmark.” Which, if you are trying to sell it, is much more uplifting.

Once, after a tasting in the Crown Hotel in Southwold when a room full of Masters of Wine had roundly berated the 1990 vintage, I did consider throwing in the towel but the great Rhône guru John Livingstone-Learmonth (www.drinkrhone.com) persuaded me to keep the faith on the grounds that the terroir at Château Grillet is unique and capable of producing outstanding wines.  Happily he was right (as gurus often are) and the vintage run from 2003 onwards, under Monsieur Dubourdieu’s influence has been fantastic. I tasted the 2005 last week with Farr Vintners boss Stephen Browett at Chabrot Bistro d’Amis  (www.chabrot.co.uk). It’s a bargain there, in London restaurant terms, at £95 a bottle and is drinking beautifully now. It is still a little closed on the nose and merits decanting but it has great vigour, length and minerality and is the perfect foil for classic French cuisine. I think it has a least a decade’s happy drinking ahead of it – as does the 2006 which is also stupendous. We are about to ship the keenly anticipated 2007 which will, I suppose, mark the end of an era. If the rumours of what M. Pinault paid for the property are even half accurate it may well also be the last ever vintage of Château Grillet that is remotely affordable, so my (highly partial) advice is to fill your boots before the Bordelais ramp up the prices – it’s unquestionably a buyers’ market!

Yapp Brothers supplies wine to around 500 restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and pubs in the UK, so wine lists in other countries is of particular professional interest to me.  It also has a significant bearing on my holiday finances and choice of tipple.  Three weeks in Colombia over Christmas and New Year presented me with ample opportunity to gauge its’ Bacchanalian temperature.  Situated astride the equator, the Colombian climate is not conducive to wine production, so nearly all the listings derive from Chile, Argentina and Spain.  My first week in Cali, home to sugar production and over 100 salsa schools, provided little of wine interest save my friend Santiago’s proffering a bottle of sparkling Bodegas Chandon rosé from LVMH’s Argentine estate.  Otherwise I stuck to the national beer, Club Colombia, and Ron Viejo de Caldas – with tonic.  Entry level wine in restaurants started at 75,000 Colombian Pesos, equivalent to £25.  OK you might say, but for Casillero del Diablo, Santa Rita and Montes, all of which are offered at around £5 in UK supermarkets, it wasn’t enticing.

Aguila’s distinctive advertising might fall foul of ASA standards.

By the time that we had reached the beautiful UNESCO world heritage site of Cartagena on the Caribbean, and despite switching my beer allegiance to the local ‘Aguila’, I was gagging for a decent red.  Robin and Judith Yapp had now joined us and over the following week we undertook some extensive investigation into the eating and drinking scene.  We loved restaurant Don Juan, quite liked La Vitrola and didn’t dig San Pedro.  Cartagena is just discovering the international recognition it thoroughly deserves, but this has yet to flow through some fairly ambitious pricing into the menu and wine list quality.

Robin Yapp adopts a traditional New Year costume.

Our last weekend was spent in the capital Bogota, perched over 2,000m in the Andes where we stayed at the excellent JW Marriott that had been recommended by a London-based Colombian friend, Mauro.  This first-class hotel housed a Martini bar that listed 73 different styles of Martini and a good restaurant, La Mina, where we feasted on steak.  For the first time on our trip, the wine list featured some Rhône wines – Beaucastel 2006 and a solid (although too young) Bordeaux page.  In fact, we settled for a bottle of Argentine Torrontes and then a 100% Petit Verdot from Chile, both under £30 and very respectable.

I would encourage any one to visit this fascinating, fun and widely mis-represented country, but it brought home to me (yet again) that the UK is fortunate to have the most extensive, best value wine market in the world.

Trip Highlights – wild Féria de Cali, exotic New Year in Cartagena, awesome Gold Museum in Bogota.

Jean-Pierre Meffre - Domaine Saint Gayan

It’s our final day in the Rhône valley and we are beginning to flag a little as we wend our way out of Orange once again at 8.30am.  We’ve long since given up trying to convince friends and family that tasting wine is an arduous task, but you can have too much of a good thing.  We are now well into three figures for wines tasted and considered this week for our Rhône 2009 vintage report, so we are both looking forward to getting back home.  Yet it’s hard to feel sorry for ourselves as we roll up at Domaine Saint Gayan in 20 degree sunshine.  Its 9am and Mont Ventoux towers above us in a blue sky, beautiful but brutal, and Jean-Pierre Meffre takes us through his gamme covering Sablet, Rasteau, Gigondas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (where he owns less than a hectare that abuts the vineyards of Beaucastel).  We taste a succession of vintages and its clear that the 2009′s will have a freshness and elegance by comparison with their beefier 2007 siblings.

Heading north (on the home stretch now) we arrive at Domaine Biguet just outside Saint Péray, west of Valence. We’re an hour late for our tasting but Jean-Louis Thiers remains relaxed and promptly shows us in to his neat tasting room.  Saint Péray is commonly recognised for its sparkling wines that historically out-priced Champagne, but the still version (also made from 100% Marsanne) deserves to be better known, with aromas of orchard fruit and a ripe, rich palate.

Our final tasting en route to Lyon airport is fittingly at Domaine Georges Vernay in Condrieu.  Here we taste the range of 2009 Viogniers for which the estate is justifiably world-renowned, as well as red Côtes du Rhône (interestingly from vines within the AOC limits of Condrieu) and a sleek St Joseph from 35 year old vines.  Paul Amsellem (Christine Vernay’s husband) is gamely hosting a large party of Norwegians, so winemaker Christine conducts our tasting and the conversation flows from yields and lieu-dits to the ‘dematerialisation’ of the music industry.

Alas, we have to flee as our return flight beckons, but it’s been one hell of a week!

Jason & Tom.

Fortified by a superb dinner at Guy Julien’s truffle-orientated restaurant ‘Le Beaugravière’ in Montdragon (which has a legendary Rhône wine list) we arrived in Châteauneuf-du-Pape on Wednesday morning greeted by a blue sky and southern sunshine.

At Le Vieux Donjon Marie-José Michel and her daughter Claire gave us a warm welcome and the happy news that the Rhône 2009 vintage had surpassed their expectations. We then sampled a bottle of their excellent white Châteauneuf’ 2009. Made from equal volumes of Clairette and Roussanne this mid-weight, un-oaked offering has subtle citrus and ‘fleurs blanches’ scents and a bright, palate of white orchard fruit underscored by a clean acidity. It is drinking wonderfully well right now and should continue to do so for a further 3 years. Claire then produced a cask sample of the red Le Vieux Donjon 2009 which exhibited a powerful bouquet of red fruit and a complex palate infused with garrigue berry and Provençal herb notes. We then compared with a bottle of the blockbuster 2007 vintage (which still has plenty of youthful vigour) and although the 2009 is a shade lighter and less concentrated (dare we say more feminine?) it is clearly a superb and age-worthy wine.

Domaine du Père Caboche

Down the road at Domaine du Père Caboche another young vigneronne, Emile Boisson, was equally upbeat about the 2009 vintage. The Boisson family is renowned for producing forward-drinking, fruit accentuated wines for immediate gratification. Their white Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2009 is a classic with a fresh, sapid palate and attractive white peach aromas. It is cleaner and zestier than most of its peers and you could happily drink it as an aperitif. The principal cuvée of red Châteauneuf’, called simply ‘Domaine du Père Caboche’, has a bright bouquet of crushed red berries and a supple, silky palate of warming red fruit flavours and ripe, sweet tannins. This is a wine for shameless hedonistic consumption while waiting for grander, more contemplative wines to mature. The Boissons’ flagship wine called ‘Elisabeth Chambellan’, from 100 year-old vines on ‘La Crau’ plateau, is deeper, darker, richer and more complex than the regular bottling but it retains the domaine’s signature of seductive, come-hither fruit. It will age well for a decade – if you’ve got the patience to wait that long.

Having completed our tastings in Châteauneuf’ we then headed south to Les Baux to sample the wines of Domaine de Trévallon. Strictly speaking this is in Provence and not the Rhône valley but it’s certainly a wine that appeals to Rhône enthusiasts so we were keen to pay a visit. After successfully negotiating the backwaters of Les Alpilles we were greeted by Antoine Dürrbach and his younger sister Ostiane who are both now firmly involved in the family business. We kicked-off with a tasting of the rare and idiosyncratic white Domaine de Trévallon 2009. Made from a unique blend of Marsanne (45%), Roussanne (45%), Chardonnay (7%) and Grenache Blanc (3%) raised in oak barrels (half of which are new) this is rich, powerful, gastronomic wine that probably requires a bit of bottle-age and a food accompaniment to be seen at its best. We then sampled the 2009 red Syrah from barrel which had an impressive purple colour and a core of concentrated sweet, black fruit over fine-grained tannins. We then tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon which had a lovely cassis bouquet, very bright fruit and a fresh acidity. The obvious thing to next was to sample a blend of the two together which produced a really harmonious result – a great balance of berry aromas, ripe fruit, sweet tannin and clean acidity. Considering its southern location Domaine de Trévallon is a very vintage sensitive wine and it appears that the 2009 is going to be a classic. As in Châteauneuf-du-Pape some of the raw power of the 2007’s might be missing but there is great balance and purity which will yield a wine of elegance and enormous future gratification.

After another day spent tasting young Rhône wines there is really only one choice of liquid refreshment – a cold demi pression or two in ‘Le Mistral’ bar in Orange.

Jason & Tom.

(Continuing the voyage down the Rhône valley this week, to catch up with vigneron friends and get an insight into the Rhône 2009 vintage).

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave is a key reference point for the entire Rhône valley, and securing an audience with Jean-Louis himself is never easy.  Space precludes going into too much detail here, but the red Chave Hermitage 2009 has the potential to be a legendary wine and on the strength of our cask tasting I would be surprised if Jean-Louis did not produce a bottling of his prized Cuvée Cathelin.  All of the components that are required for a classic, age-worthy red Hermitage are here – a wealth of dark fruit flavours and well-structured tannins underscored by a fine acidity.  The finished wine won’t hit these shores until Spring 2012, but it will be worth the wait.  Not to be overlooked is the Chave’s peerless white Hermitage which should also be ‘bien classique’ in this impressive vintage.

Maxime Graillot Kicks Back in the Cellar

Just South of Tain l’Hermitage, at Les Chenes Verts, young Maxime Graillot exudes confidence at the purpose-built winery he shares with his semi-retired father Alain. Their red Crozes Hermitage is juicy and fruity and will provide rewarding drinking from the off.  A new negoçiant cuvée of Cornas called ‘Equis’ was hugely impressive with a core of dark Cassis fruit over a foundation of ripe, subtle tannins. We wound up a great day’s tasting with the Graillots’ fresh, youthful white Crozes (20% Marsanne / 80% Roussanne) already bottled under screw cap and selling rapidly.

Tomorrow we head south for Châteauneuf-du-Pape to see if the wines of the Cotes-du-Rhone Meridional can compete with their cousins in the North.

À demain (hotel wi-fi permitting),

Jason & Tom