(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

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

We were thrilled to win Decanter magazine’s coveted Specialist Merchant award last autumn and we must be getting something right here at Yapp Brothers because we have been nominated for awards in no fewer than 4 categories in the forthcoming International Wine Challenge 2010: Rhône Wine Merchant of the Year, Loire Wine Merchant of the Year, French Regional Wine Merchant of the Year and South-West of England Wine Merchant of the Year.

International Wine Challenge awards 2010

The results will be announced at a gala dinner at the Park Lane Hilton on 7th September – the judges for the 2010 awards are the IWC co-chairmen Tim Atkin MW, Sam Harrop MW, Charles Metcalfe and Derek Smedley MW. These will be joined by Laura Jewell MW, Spar UK Ltd., Simon Thorpe MW, Negociants UK Ltd., David Cox, NZ Winegrowers and Rowan Gormley.

Personally I can’t wait to thank my Mum, my Dad my colleagues here at Yapp Brothers our wine maker friends in France, our loyal customers, my shrink, my dog, my dog’s shrink, anybody else who knows me and both of the people who read this blog!