Rhone Tastings

View on Seguret in Southern Rhone

The Rhone Wine Region organized the 4th edition of its professional tasting week across the Rhone Valley. Held every other year, the tastings take place on the course of a week (2007 : march 13 to 19) in 20 locations spread along the many Rhone Appellations. It is free and professionals just have to register online a few weeks in advance so as to receive by snail mail their pass and badge for the fair. It is very well planned (even though the similar Beaujolais professional tasting event_next one in 2008_ is slightly better planned), and a unique opportunity to taste hundreds of Rhone wines, from the most-sought after vintners to the cooperatives.
Just to have an idea of the participating wineries, click on this page, then for a given Appellation, on "En Savoir Plus" (on the right), and then, on "Voir La Liste Des Exposants" on the bottom of the page.
Even though the whole thing is free, you have to choose when you register for either a couple of days or the whole package, your choice. I guess that the organization needs some kind of planning to foreview how many people will attend. This may be important for them to plan how much food is needed : Free buffet is held at all the tasting places between 11:30am and 2:30pm, and the ones we went to were just excellent...
It is also a unique opportunity to physically experience this vast wine region, its landcape, hills, vineyards, garrigues and villages, and this, in a season with no tourists and under bearable temperatures.

One of the rooms at the Vinsobres tasting (in the medieval Chateau of Suze La Rousse)
The tastings were held in very different type of places, either big tents, communal buildings or historic chateaux, but the layout was the same : At the door, your badge was scanned electronically, you were given a booklet of the tasting, a glass, and you could have a quick overview of the wineries through the selection of the tasting table, if you didn't want to stop at all the stands.
B. and I registered for three of the days, march 16 to 18, or 12 Appellations. We did not go to all the locations, there were 3 to 5 depending of the day, and that is a lot. As we arrived a day earlier in the region, we even went to a tasting for which we were not registered (Tavel) without any problem.

Grignan, its Chateau, (Coteaux du Tricastin tasting). Lavender field. Driving through the region, we actually discovered how beautiful it is, especially the Southern Rhone which has many lovely historic villages like Grignan (above) and Seguret (pic on top), and many others. The landscape is quite preserved, it seemed to us, not overbuilt, and side roads go through a landscape of low stone walls, woods, garrigues intermingled with lavender fields and vineyards.
The first tasting location with the Tavel wines was very interesting for me as I am not very familiar with these rosés wines. There were 25 participating wineries and we went to a handful of stands to taste their wines. The Tavel I preffered was the 2002 millesime by Balazu des Vaussières, a 12-hectare estate with a 3-hectare vineyard in Tavel. Intense nose, "gourmand", warmful mouth. These are definitely rosés to eat with. 4,65 Euro professional price.
March 16th we went to the Vinsobres and Coteaux Du Tricastin tastings (Southern Rhone). Frankly, after several minutes at the general tasting table, I thought : I'm not going to taste high-alcohol, high-extraction bombs like that for three days...or, what am I doing here ??... But I could handle it by spitting everything and managed to find good stuff (to my taste) among the ones we tasted. Not only are these wines actually made to go with food, but as the recent millesimes easily reach 14°, 15° or even 16°, and are coupled with the sometimes-excessive extraction, these first tastings were a bit difficult. The Vinsobres that took my attention : Domaine Viret, St Maurice, Mareotis 2004 (great one, the best Vinsobres I had); Domaine Chapoton Massif D'Uchaux 2005; Domaine de Givaudan "Les Hauts de Castellade" 2004; Domaine du Coriancon "L'Exception" 2004; Domaine Cros de la Mure 2006 (after a few years in the cellar); Chateau Saint Esteve d'Uchaux cuvée Therèse, Viognier 1999, a beautiful, suave, oxydative-style wine.
In Tricastin : Domaine des Rosier Cuvée Paul 2004; Domaine Vieux Micoulier 2000, good deal at 4 Euro [prices on this page are public prices]; La Suzienne (coop) Rabassière 2004, also a good deal at 4,05 Euro (and not too high in alcohol); SCEA Saint Michel Emotion 2005, at 7 Euro, Domaines Aubert "Le Devoy" 2001, a 100% Syrah at 4 Euro.Akiyo Hori, wine writer from Tokyo In such gatherings you always meet acquaitances of the wine world and among others, we met Akiyo, our friend from Japan who lived several years in France, visiting wineries. She recounted at the time her wineries visits and encounters with the french artisan vignerons on her website La Mer Du Vin. She also has a great collection of pictures of the hands of these vignerons/vintners. She recently wrote a well-selling book in Japan about Burgundy wines and she is a top wine taster. Based in Tokyo, she regularly comes to France for events like this one.
The next day, we went to the Beaumes De Venise, and to the Rasteau tastings. Best finds in B. de V. : Clos Du Caillou "Les Quartz" 2004 and "Bouquet des Garrigues 2005 (8,9 Euro) (vat); La Ferme Saint Martin Costanci 2004; Domaine Beauvalcinte "Les 3 Amours" 2004; Domaine de Fenouillet Reserve 2004 (16 Euro); Domaine des Bernardins "Perle dorée" (Muscat à petits grains_dry wine) 2005.
Among the Rasteaus : Domaine Grand Nicolet 2004; EARL Bernard Chamfort Sablet 2001; Domaine de Piaugier "Reserve alphonse Vautour" 2000; Domaine La Soumade Prestige 2004, and Confiance 2003...and a VDN (sweet white) 100% Grenache Rasteau Doré 2003.Jean-Louis and Gerard Chave Sunday, march 18, we went to the Hermitage tasting at Tain L'Hermitage. There was no general tasting table as there were only 16 stands and also because professionals are familiar with most of them. That's where you can taste wines that are often already sold out, and chat with icon winemakers like the Chaves, father or son [picture]. Even with 16 stands only, we tasted only a few of them. Special notes for : Delas Frères, Hermitage Les Bessards 2004; Domaine Habrard hermitage 2005; Domaine Jean-Louis Chave (Jean-Louis is the first name of the son, but also of the grand-father) Hermitage 2004 and Hermitage white 90-year-old-vines (Marsanne maj.+ Roussanne); Domaine Marc Sorel Hermitage "Le Gréal" 2005 and Hermitage white "Les rocoules" 2005 (cask); Domaine Ferraton "Le Reverdy" Hermitage 2004.Marcel Richaud (left) with sommelier Alain SegelleWe had begun this day with the Saint Joseph (66 participating wineries) tasting at Mauves. Lots of wines to sort out, so we spent some time at the general table before choosing the wineries. The St Joseph which were over the average (my taste) among the ones we tasted: Maison Alain Paret Saint Joseph 2004 "Pieds Dendés"; Domaine Blachon, Cuvée prestige St Joseph 2004; Domaine Barou St Joseph 2004; Aléofane St Joseph 2005 (very nice); Simon Roche, Saint Joseph Cuvée Spéciale 2004; Pascal Mathouret St Joseph 2005; Domaine de Bonserine "Les Ediles" 2004 (very nice mouth too, already so well integrated for a 2004); Aurelien Chataignier St Joseph "AC" 2005. very small estate, great job by a young guy.Private evening event in the Chateau de Beauregard (near Jonquiéres) There were of course a few private festivities off the Rhone Week, like the one organized by the "Toqués Des Dentelles" (click on the link on the bottom right of this page), a group of about 20 vintners (if you included the invited wineries) sharing the same philosophy for artisanship, and who come mostly from the Seguret, Beaumes De Venise and Gigondas area. "Toqués" means crazy and "Dentelles" comes from the "Dentelles de Montmirail", a scenic rocky ridge near Beaumes De Venise. The event took place in the Chateau De Beauregard [pic above] and beyond the historic beauty of the place, we had a good time because of the casual style of the people there and of the friendly atmosphere. You could of course taste the wines of the 20 participating vignerons, and there were two very nice buffets for dinner. We tasted a few wines from the non-conventionall coop "Les Vignerons D'Estezargues", also Marcel Richaud's wines, a very nice range of wines, especially Les Garrigues 2006, the Cairane 2005 and L'Ebrescade 2004, a very nice terroir near Rasteau, intense, concentrated, to eat with (we had it with the buffet)... We also loved the wines of Myriam and Bernard Plageoles (Domaine Tres Cantous), an invited guest from Gaillac. Especially his Prunelard 2006 (vat sample), an indigenous red variety from Gaillac with a very nice substance, also his sweet white Ondenc, another rare variety which keeps an astounding acidity here.
There's not enough room to tell about all the wines that we tasted both at this evening and at the Rhone tastings proper, but this is the kind of event where you can refresh your experiences and touch a very diverse range of styles........................................What you need for this type of event is a car, to go from one location to the other. For the accomodations, we opted for the cheap Formule 1 hotel chain, as we got there only to sleep. They are usually located near a freeway (autoroute), have a secured parking lot and are easy to access to. The rooms are basic but OK and cost only 27 or 29 Euro for up to 3 people. There are quite a few of these hotels in the Rhone and they are easy to book online (another free add !).Next "Decouvertes en Vallee Du Rhone" : march 2009

Comments

[hikalu.m]

yeah, those pictures of the hands! That reminds me that I've also taken a picture of a winery's hands in my France traveling.