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Posts Tagged ‘Condrieu’

Following last month’s highly successful tasting on Bordeaux grape varieties around the world, this month’s fine wine supper focused on the Rhône varieties.  In fact this turned out to be too big a subject matter, but we had such great wines from the northern Rhône that it became a matter of ‘home and away’.  The other big difference is that Rhône varieties are all stars grapes in their home territories. Unlike Bordeaux there are no varieties which are minor at home and have become stars in another place.  Syrah and Viognier strut their stuff at home, Marsanne and Roussanne do well too and the key grapes of the south are originally from Spain anyway and have hit the world stage from an adopted home: Grenache and Mourvèdre, originally Garnacha and Montastrell/Mataro.  Cinsaut and the minor whites are not really stars anywhere unless you think of the former’s role in the best rosés of Provence and, anyway, according to Jancis & co, it is likely to be from Languedoc anyway.  So perhaps ‘home and away’ is the correct theme.  On to the wines!

The aperitif for the evening was provided by the southern Rhône.  The south of France is famous for its rosés, whether elegantly pale or full bodied and structured. ‘La Dame Rousse’, Domaine de la Mordorée,Tavel AC, 2010, 14.5% is certainly in the latter camp with 14.5% alcohol by volume: cherry, boiled sweets and marzipan on the nose, still very fresh with a fine, substantial palate of red fruits, medium to high acidity and weight in the mouth. Would go brilliant with food too. 

Our first ‘home and away’ pair featured the now well travelled Viognier, famously rescued from near extinction by Georges Vernay (see the penultimate red wine below)  in the then tiny appellation of Condrieu after the second world war.  Our pair showed how differently it can turn out.  Domaine Christophe Pichon, Condrieu AC, 2009 is really trying to be a big white Burgundy with its restrained, structured elegance and weight in the mouth, with buttery and candied fruit flavours.  Half the wine does time (nine months) being matured in barrels which are only 10% new but the effect is to tone down Viognier’s attractive fruitiness.  Meanwhile the outstanding fruit from a very unusual and tiny plot of Viognier in Marlborough, New Zealand is 50% fermented in oak.  Viognier, Churton, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2010, 14.8% does the obvious really excellently: powerful aromatics of new oak and luscious fruit with the quintessentially Viognier apricot and peach to the fore.  It was similar on the palate with the fruit heading in an even more exotic pineapple direction. Most people much preferred the Marlborough offering. 

The second ‘home and away’ pair focused on what has come to be known as GSM, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.  This trio are the work horses of the massive Côtes-du-Rhône appellation, France’s biggest wine export to the UK.  The wines can be anything from mundane to marvellous and this is a very good example from Lirac which has an appellation of its own.  The mix for Château d’Acqeria, Lirac AC, 2009, 14% is 50% Grenache and 25% each Syrah and Mourvèdre and it was a bundle of berry fruit, spice and vanilla with a structure held together with fine tannins.  The style is a bit too modern (new oak) for me but there is no denying the quality and poise.  By contrast our ‘away’ wine was Red (that’s original!), Eben Sadie, Sequillo, WO Swartland, South Africa, 2009, 14.5%. This was a big, powerful, number with those berries again but this time balsam and cedar wood, a fruit-ripe sweetness on the palate, long and outstanding.  It was very young indeed but shows great promise.  From an unspecified blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache accompanied by the southern French duo of Carignan and Cinsault. 

Three Syrahs marked the climax of the evening, two from the northern Rhône’s top two appellations and one from the Barossa Valley which has developed a world-beating style of its own.  The hill of Hermitage, rising above the left bank of the great southern river, produces what was the greatest French red wine in the world in the eighteenth century, long before Bordeaux was classified. It produces dark, intense Syrah which can age for decades. Our example was very young but impressive: 

Les Miaux, Ferraton Père et fils, Hermitage AC, 2007, 14%. Farmed biodynamically, this spends no less than four weeks macerating on the skins to extract all that colour and the tannins for the long haul.   It was already showing red berry, pepper, smoke and meat notes with great concentration and length … and it has barely begun to develop.  The second Rhône example had some of that bottle age: Maison Rouge, Côte Rôtie AC, Domaine Georges Vernay (of Condrieu fame), 1997, 12.5%. There was a marked contrast here between the fully mature nose of balsam, cedar, mushroom and red fruit and the remarkably young, super sweet fruit palate with its long, supple tannins.  And it was not a big alcoholic number – note that 12.5% alcohol. 

The final wine of the evening was big – but big, complex and satisfying.  Powerful dried figs and caramel to start with, then black fresh and dried fruit, excellent acidity to shore it all up, mouth filling and balanced.  Basket Press Shiraz, Rockford, Barossa Valley, South Australia 2003, 15% is a tribute to the monumental Shiraz of dry farmed Barossa – but had all the complexity and depth of a great wine just getting into its stride after a decade or so.  The producer tells you nothing about how it is made but that the fruit comes from very old vines – between 60 years and staggering 136 years.  It is one of the ironies of the so-called new world that most of the oldest vines still in production are to be found there. 

This was a great evening marked by the outstanding quality of the wines.  We may not have had time for the Marsanne/Roussanne duo or the minor southern blending varieties but there was no shortage of quality, nor contrasts in styles – whether the Rhône grape varieties were home or away. 

October’s BBC (Bring a Bottle Club) was a straightforward delight – a series of pretty much consistently good to very good wines, some teasers when tasted blind, but an excellent general standard.  And not too many complete jokers …

	Not many thought this sparkling wine was Champagne but plumped for a bottle-fermented sparkling wine perhaps from the New World or from another French region.  Medium intensity nose, soft and just a touch on the off-dry side in the mouth, lemon and yellow apple fruit, simple and pleasant with a touch of biscuit on the nose.  In fact it was Champagne, Madame de Maintenon, made in Rheims – and all this for an amazing £7.49 a bottle on special offer from the Co-op.  That’s UK wine retailing for you, but on this occasion we were happy to collude!
The second wine was a bit of a challenge if a very pleasant one.  Clean and rather neutral on the nose, but then quite rich and full bodied on the palate with relatively fat, peach and apricot fruit and a hint of spice.  For the fatness and the spice I wondered about a semi-aromatic grape like Traminer, but in fact this was Godello from Spain:  Valdosil, Godello, Vilamartin de Valdeonas, Galicia, 2009.
	This was my own wine and so I was in the impregnable position of knowing what it was. For everyone else it provided the perfect example of once you have persuaded yourself of a grape variety, you shoehorn the wine into that mould – we have all done it.  Medium plus intensity stone fruit and floral notes on the nose, fine mineral finish, spicey and classy.  The group view was that it was either Gewurz or Pinot Gris where as in fact it was Viognier:  Domaine Christophe Pichon, Condrieu AC, 2009 and very fine too.
Another very classy wine followed: a fine fresh lemon and sherbet palate, medium bodied, noticeable mineral edge, not obviously fruity but extremely well made, excellent length. Once we knew what it was one person confessed to having been on the right lines on the grape variety but nobody called classic Sancerre ‘Sauvignon Blanc’.  Made in homage to Didier Dagueneau, it is even called Silex backward: X-elis, Gitton Pere & Fils, AC Sancerre 2008.  Several people immediately put in orders for this wine, the ultimate accolade.
	The Red Lion’s very good and enormous Lamb Shank was accompanied by a final white and a series of fine reds.  The wine had a pronounced aromatic and oaky nose, sweet, ripe, white stone fruit and further wood notes on the palate and a rich finish.  Quite a big powerful white which has spent 10 months in French barriques:  Belondrade y Lurton, Rueda DO, 2006 from the Verdejo grape variety. Two good examples this evening of the fine white wines now coming out of northern Spain.
Pictures of transparent bottles are best taken with the red liquid inside them …. This turned out to be the first level offering of a fine Sicilian producer – IGT Sicilia Rosso and no list of varieties on the bottle mean that the wine maker can use what is to hand. When the wine is this good we are not going to worry about the percentages but it must be predominantly Nerello Mascalese for its superb, fragrant, sour cherry fruit, zippy acidity and high tannins: delicious, refreshing, grippy:  Contadino 3, Cornellissen & Yoko Sano, IGT Sicilia Rosso (in reality 2005)
	When is Zinfandel pale and interesting … and not like Zin at all?  When it is planted in the south of France and comes out with a surprisingly light colour, markedly oaky notes, high acidity and tannins … Strange but true,  and good with the big meat dish.  Z de l’Arjolle, Vin de Pays des Cotes de Thongue, 2005.  OK – so perhaps there were some jokers at this tasting.
If Zin is supposed to be rich, fruity and dense, Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre blends from the south of France are supposed to be full of fruit, perhaps a bit rustic and be drinking within three years, certainly five years, of harvest.  But not in the case of the pretty massive, opaque, black fruit and oak laden wine in front of us, with high acidity and still unforgivingly tough tannins.  And this is supposedly 60% Grenache at 12 years old … from a big name producer. Wine has the capacity to surprise constantly:  Terra d’Or, Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence, M. Chapoutier, 2000.  Try again in a decade or two?
	To finish, two contrasting sweet white wines which at least share one grape variety  but came from opposite ends of the wine making world and of the age spectrum.  First up, a big waft of honey, marmalade and sweet lusciousness from Australia:  Noble One, De Bortoli, 100% Semillon, 2007.  Then, a complex combination of old fruit sweetness, botrytised complexity and some deterioration  in condition but still good acidity – but then it was nearly three decades old: Ch. Coutet, Barsac AC, 1983, a classic Bordeaux sweet blend of 75% Semillon, 23 Sauvignon Blanc and 2% Muscadelle.

Blind tasting is never easy, but when the wines are this good, it is very rewarding. 

Andover Wine Friends’ monthly tasting featured wines from small French appellations and provided a tour of the south of France with a stop-off in Corsica.  Led by Lefty Wright (picture in second box below), it showed what quality there is outside of the well known areas – if you can source these small production bottles, here provided by Yapp Brothers. 

First up was rather a classy wine, AC Cassis, Clos St Magdeleine 2009.  Cassis itself is an old fishing port, now tourist resort, with the AC having 180 hectares of vineyard. Made from Marsanne, Clairette, Bourboulenc and Ugni Blanc, this wine had a good lemon richness on the nose, citrus and ripe fruit on palate with an interesting toffee note (as though it had been in old wood which apparently it hadn’t) and good length.  Structured and substantial it would be good with all sorts of food.
	No photo of Dom. Saparale’s Corse Sartene, 2010 which may have been a Freudian slip as this was the dis-appointment of the evening.  Almost water white, this Corsican Vermentino comes from the south of the island and an altitude of 300m which should make for quality.  Quite a marked nose but only herbaceous and pear drop notes, missing the lemon fruit which characterises good Vermentino from here and other Mediterranean shores.  Those who had had this wine before said it was not a typical bottle.
By contrast this wine was one of the stars of the evening, living up to its top reputation.  La Berne, AC Condrieu 2003 comes from the home of the Viognier grape, which is now grown around the world, in the northern Rhône.  It shone with its rich, honeyed and peach nose with some fine wood notes, classic satin texture and, surprisingly for a very hot year, a good sharp edge of lemon and grapefruit acidity. Very intense, full of elegant fruit, just very good.  Thanks to Lefty for sharing this from his cellar.
	Moving much further south west into Basque country (the last AC in France), this wine is a Pyrenean version of a Bordeaux blend: AC Irouleguy 2007, Dom. Ilarria, made from 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Franc and just 20% Tannat.  Fresh and dried red and black notes on nose and palate, fine perfumed bouquet, medium weight, good tannic structure but perfectly drinkable, medium length.  The domaine works just six hectares of vines.
As there seems to be quite a lot of Cornas about, it comes as a surprise that there is only 110 hectares of vines, 13.5 of which belong to Dom. Lionnet: Terre Brulée, AC Cornas 2005.  And the refinement of the wine was also unusual, as normally Cornas comes in a rustic style.  Perfumed with violet and red fruit notes, slightly meaty edge on the palate but with very good depth of flavour, not obviously peppery.  We agreed that this was an excellent wine and most thought that we might not have spotted the northern Rhône Syrah in a blind tasting. thanks again to Lefty for this bottle from his cellar.
	With nearly 1,000 hectares of vines it was stretching a point to include Bandol in this tasting – but it made the cut on the (good) grounds that Lefty likes it.  And it is another old fishing port which has made its distinctive name in the world of wine.  Powerful aromas of red fruit and blackberries, plus herby garrigue aromas, in an excellent example of a very good if rustic wine.  55% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache, 20% Cinsault and 5% Syrah make up the blend for Mas de la Rouvière, Bandol 2007.
Back to the genuinely small, Bellet is an appellation with 15 producers which is under threat from being built over as it is now in effect a suburb of Nice.  The blend here is the very local Braquet (now not thought to be a relative of the aromatic Brachetto in NW Italy), Folle Noir and Grenache – so that you can recognise one grape variety.  Dom. de la Source, Dalmasso, AC Bellet, 2006.  Strongly farmyard aromas to begin with, then good red fruit, a fine and structured wine without being heavy this far South, good acidity and length.
	Ch. Simon is the big player in AC Palette, near Aix-en-Provence, as it has 16 of the AC’s total of 35 hectares.  The wine here is made from 45% Grenache, 30% Mourvèdre, 5% Cinsault and 20% of other red grapes which includes some Syrah.  Ch. Simone, AC Palette 2007 is matured in a slightly unusual way: eight months in small casks and then a year in more conventional barriques. Vanilla and red fruit on the nose, refined palate, moderately fine tannins and all round a very classy wine.  A very suitable climax to an intriguing tour of southern France’s small treasures.

February’s meeting of Andover Wine Friends was a spectacular lunch at The Harrow Inn, Little Bedwyn.  They put on a great show for 17 of us, while running the front half of the restaurant as usual.  I was seriously off duty – too much good food, company and excellent wines – so there are no detailed notes this month.  However, here are a selection of photos of some of the seven or so courses plus cheese, almost entirely from these islands. And a brief note on some outstanding wines.

The approach in this restaurant is easy to describe – genuinely warm hospitality, outstanding sourcing of ingredients, perfect timing in the kitchen, innovative combinations and a profound love of wine.  What a great combination!  The event started well with Ruinart Blanc de Blanc Champagne, being poured above left. 

And the wines? Some were bought at the Harrow and some came from people’s own collections. To pick out some unfairly:

• the Ruinart is wonderfully balanced and very refined
• Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex, Loire – great, concentrated mineral Sauvignon Blanc … because there is a tradition of drinking this great wine at the Harrow
• a stunningly good, moderately priced Semillon from Australia which the Harrow stocks: Mount Horrocks Semillon, Clare Valley, Australia
• a wonderful white Grenache (not a phrase you can often employ!) from Catalan Spain – Ctonia, Masia Serra
• three Rieslings to compare – Eden Valley, Australia; classic Mosel; Schlumberger Grand Cru from Alsace
• decent Condrieu from Christophe Pichon and Cornas from Domaine de Rochepertuis
• sadly another ‘drink at the Harrow’ tradition here did not come to pass as the 1985 Hermitage from Jaboulet was over the hill – I suppose in this case it just rolled gracefully down the hill
• Spinnifex’s Indigene and Shiraz-Mataro from the Barossa, big fruit numbers but beautifully structured and complex, especially the latter
• there were quite a few others which probably deserved a mention …
• and finally, a brilliantly concentrated and only moderately sweet Banyuls: Coume del Mas Quintessence Banyulus Rouge
• some people found a little space to try two different Grappas

With many thanks to the whole crew at the Harrow – you deserve your success.