late July 2010
Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe at Châteauneuf-du-Pape - including a first look at the 2009 red, and the 2008 bottled wine across the range, that includes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine La Roquète. Also the 2009 and 2008 at the Bruniers` Domaine Les Pallières at Gigondas, where the Les Racinescuvée is starting to make a name for itself.
A look at the 5 main grape varieties involved in the red Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château de Beaucastel 2009 has also been included after a mid-summer visit.
RASTEAU MOVES INTO THE BIG LEAGUE
Rasteau now has full appellation cru status on its own for its red wine, joining its Vin Doux Naturel fortified wine as well as the likes of Vacqueyras, Vinsobres, Beaumes-de-Venise and Lirac in the highest echelon of the Southern Rhône hierarchy. Boy, this has been a long, on-off saga. What happens is an inspection of the vineyards by geologists and agronomes, once the body of the growers including of course the Co-operative has invited them so to do [note, adroit use of official language easily slipped into when reporting such weighty bureaucratic matters].
All the while, there is a hovering Sword of Damocles over some vineyards that are deemed unworthy [there I go again] of providing the quality of wine suited to full appellation cru status. In the final case of Rasteau, about 100 hectares have been omitted from roughly 1,300 hectares - just under 8%. Their wine will now be a simple Côtes du Rhône. These are mostly lower lying zones, such as the Saint-Martin and Blovac Sud sites; their soils are dark clay, alluvial, but some locals consider their wine superior to the Plan de Dieu Villages next door: "you get drought on the Plan de Dieu, and the vineyard really suffers," one Rasteau practitioner told me.
The Rasteau Cave Co-operative Ortas accounts for about 65% of the appellation`s wine, the rest made up by about 26 private domaines, a few of whom (younger domaines rather than Cairanne aristocracy) also have vineyards in Cairanne immediately to the west. Rasteau white and rosé will now be labelled Côtes du Rhône. Cairanne`s process towards appellation cru will be attempted "at an accelerated pace," Daniel Alary of Domaine Alary told me - "perhaps four years. Our commission starts this summer, 2010."
Rasteau should have been made into its own cru long ago. It has always been a front runner in the Villages stakes, with its name perhaps held back by the obscurity of its Vin Doux Naturel, which happens to be traversing rather a fine phase at present, well made with care and attention by young and motivated growers.
"This is a long-term project," André Romero of Domaine La Soumade told me; "it is not a short-term event, especially as we put in our first request 15 years ago. Prices will start off similar." André fancies Spain for the World Cup, I fancy Brasil, by the way. Ordem e Progresso para todo o mundo, I declare. Already Romero has got one over me: back to the drawing board (or Copacabana beach, where I was once known as "Bobber Shalton" (the fair hair, you see). Disorder, more like.
RECENT ADDITIONS
late July 2010
Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe at Châteauneuf-du-Pape - including a first look at the 2009 red, and the 2008 bottled wine across the range, that includes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine La Roquète. Also the 2009 and 2008 at the Bruniers` Domaine Les Pallières at Gigondas, where the Les Racinescuvée is starting to make a name for itself.
A look at the 5 main grape varieties involved in the red Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château de Beaucastel 2009 has also been included after a mid-summer visit.