STGT Wines
mid-November 2009
starting to be fed in are STGT and w.o.w. wines tasted in the Rhône this month, along with the first 2009s, notably the whites. Look for any STGT wine with 11/09 as the tasting date. The vins de pays 2008s are shaping into very good value, easy drinking wines - there are some under the w.o.w. bracket, and right good they are, too. Domaines visited and written up so far are at Condrieu, the two Frankies - François Merlin, and François Villard, along with the nicely local, STGT-leaning Marie & Pierre Benetière. One of my first ever visits to Condrieu in June, 1973, was to Pierre`s brother who was then a négociant in the regional wines, and thus one of the few people dealing in finished wine in bottles at the time. My domestic drinking in Aix-en-Provence was the starred litre bottle, plastic top, Ventoux red and rosé from the Cave de Beaumes-de-Venise, about 80 centimes a pop if I remember rightly. Bottles with corks were for big hitters, pas moi. I did have a few pairs of smart espadrilles, though, even if not in the I Marcos league.
At Côte-Rôtie, René Rostaing and the brothers Bonnefond, Patrick & Christophe have also been revised. At Saint-Joseph, neighbours Emmanuel Barou, Pierre Finon and Pascal Marthouret, the first two successful with vins de pays and Finon especially with his whites, the last-named in the w.o.w. camp. Also Louis Chèze, up on the plateau at Limony, whose domaine has almost become an empire since he started in the 1980s, and Domaine du Chêne at Chavanay.
At Séguret, the ever reliable, good quality Domaine de Cabasse, also a hotel in the summer months, has been added, as has a small but active enterprise at Ventoux, at the village of Le Barroux, St Jean du Barroux. (Mass in the chapel just outside the village there is spoken in Latin). At Plan de Dieu Côtes du Rhône Villages, a young man with a small vineyard, Hervé Bessac, is a new entry, as is the large 70+hectare Côtes du Rhône estate at Suze-la-Rousse, Château La Borie, provider of well-fruited wines. Another good domaine with clearly-fruited wines is Domaine Marie-Blanche at Signargues, one of the recent Côtes du Rhône Villages.
Cornas (cheval mascot) alert: please reach for your nearest bottle of Cornas. If you don`t open it, at least touch it. Whisper to it, hum at it, intone positive thoughts towards it. For our steed is running at Ascot on Saturday 21 November, in a £34,000 9 runner handicap steeplechase over 2 miles, 1 furlong (1 furlong = 1/8 of a mile, thus 220 yards). The race starts at 2.05 and is on Channel 4 in GB. He has the top weight and is meant to be the classiest horse in the race. His trainer was keen to run to him, saying he is in good form at home. I expect a gallant showing, but he may be finishing second or third. His odds are 4 to 5/1. Allez, Cornas! LATE WIRE: Cornas finishes third, an honourable run, but never really in the front rank. Well run, Cornas. The bottle of 1991 Cornas Auguste Clape that I got out of the cellar helped to some extent, it would seem.
November 2009 News: growers report their 2009s as fermenting well, but in the southern Rhône, some vats have started to take their time, so loaded with sugar have they been. The malolactic fermentations have been remarkably quick to occur this year - the drought and hot summer meant there were low levels of malic acidity, with some "malos" taking place before the primary, alocoholic fermentation had finished - something very rarely experienced. In the Northern Rhône there appears to be considerable enthusiasm about the new vintage, both from a quality and a quantity standpoint. In the Southern Rhône, there are also great hopes. An issue yet again may be that of low acidity wines with high levels of alcohol, which could prompt more than desirable cellar intervention. We will see. I have visits to the Rhône before Christmas, and will be reporting back on both 2008s and some early impressions of 2009.
Cornas (cheval mascot) alert: Cornas ran a most honourable second in a Grade 2, hot handicap steeplechase at Exeter on 3 November. I was, ahem, drinking 2001 René Rostaing Côte-Rôtie in London at the time, so apologise to our Cheval Mascot for such negligence. Would he have won (beaten 3 lengths) if I had been drinking Cornas, or indeed, if we had organised readers to ALL drink Cornas that day? His jumping was apparently good, and he went down fighting. One report that the jockey had "tack trouble at or near the last fence" is a little alarming - do vignerons drop their pipettes? So Cornas ran up to expectations, also having been backed rather heavily from 12/1 into a starting price of 5/1. Maybe his fan club is growing. Meanwhile, his daring owners, the Vine Trail crew, have returned from Melbourne after watching another of their equine empire, Capecover, like Cornas a New Zealand bred, run in no less a race than the Melbourne Cup - the race that stops a nation, the race that creates a public holiday across Australia, making it doubly popular. Drawn in stall 19 - wide - he will be finishing strongly, as he likes to make his move late. How late is late? - a Hegelian question for this Sunday morning. The answer I'm afraid - late in the absolute, metaphysical sense: 17th of 23.
Honourable Racer
November 2009
growers report their 2009s as fermenting well, but in the southern Rhône, some vats have started to take their time, so loaded with sugar have they been. The malolactic fermentations have been remarkably quick to occur this year - the drought and hot summer meant there were low levels of malic acidity, with some "malos" taking place before the primary, alocoholic fermentation had finished - something very rarely experienced. In the Northern Rhône there appears to be considerable enthusiasm about the new vintage, both from a quality and a quantity standpoint. In the Southern Rhône, there are also great hopes. An issue yet again may be that of low acidity wines with high levels of alcohol, which could prompt more than desirable cellar intervention. We will see. I have visits to the Rhône before Christmas, and will be reporting back on both 2008s and some early impressions of 2009.
Cornas (cheval mascot) alert: Cornas ran a most honourable second in a Grade 2, hot handicap steeplechase at Exeter on 3 November. I was, ahem, drinking 2001 René Rostaing Côte-Rôtie in London at the time, so apologise to our Cheval Mascot for such negligence. Would he have won (beaten 3 lengths) if I had been drinking Cornas, or indeed, if we had organised readers to ALL drink Cornas that day? His jumping was apparently good, and he went down fighting. One report that the jockey had "tack trouble at or near the last fence" is a little alarming - do vignerons drop their pipettes? So Cornas ran up to expectations, also having been backed rather heavily from 12/1 into a starting price of 5/1. Maybe his fan club is growing. Meanwhile, his daring owners, the Vine Trail crew, have returned from Melbourne after watching another of their equine empire, Capecover, like Cornas a New Zealand bred, run in no less a race than the Melbourne Cup - the race that stops a nation, the race that creates a public holiday across Australia, making it doubly popular. Drawn in stall 19 - wide - he will be finishing strongly, as he likes to make his move late. How late is late? - a Hegelian question for this Sunday morning. The answer I'm afraid - late in the absolute, metaphysical sense: 17th of 23.
