It appears that I had the same idea as our Sablet neighbor who writes "Our House in Provence" at
You can read the entire article at Michel's blog or by looking up the article in the NYT (publish date: July 8, 2012. IHT publish date: July 6, 2012) or read on...
PS: I high-lighted two of the wines cited in the article because I had written about them in April.
But in one area, the southern
part of the Rhône Valley, there is no argument. Even though there’s nothing wrong
with 2009, 2010 is clearly better, maybe even one of the best vintages ever for
the great red wines of the region.
That’s saying something, because the southern Rhône has
been on a roll. Over the past decade, only two vintages, 2002 and 2008, were
disappointing, and most of the rest were at least very good. One, 2007, was
praised to the heavens.
Now, many growers say their 2010s, only recently bottled,
are superior to the 2007s. After recent visits to the southern Rhône, taking in
the most famous winemaking town in the region, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and two
lesser-known villages, Rasteau and Cairanne, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree.
I’ll look at Châteauneuf-du-Pape, whose vineyards lie just
alongside the river, between the cities of Avignon and Orange, in a future column. First, it’s worth making a side trip
to Cairanne and Rasteau, which are nestled in the scrub-covered hills below
Mont Ventoux and the serrated peaks of the Dentelles de Montmirail, a few
kilometers northeast of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Why Cairanne and Rasteau? These are two of the new stars of
the southern Rhône, the climatically distinct, Mediterranean portion of a river
that is lined with vineyards much of the way back to its source in a much
cooler place, the Rhône Glacier in the Swiss Alps.
For a long time, the southern part of the valley was known
mainly for Châteauneuf-du-Pape and for bargeloads of rustic Côtes-du-Rhône from
the sprawling vineyards all around it. Eventually, the French winemaking
authorities elevated other individual villages to “cru” status, starting in
1971 with Gigondas. This meant they, like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, could display
their own names on the label, unaccompanied by the humbler regional
designation.
The most recent to be promoted was Rasteau, in 2010.
(Rasteau was previously a standalone cru for a small amount of fortified wine,
but the new designation covers the village’s main output — dry red table wine.)
Cairanne, a few kilometers to the west, has applied for
promotion and, if all goes well, could receive it within a few years. (For now,
it is a so-called Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, an in-between designation.)
Now that we’ve dispensed with the bureaucratic formalities,
let’s get down to what really matters: the hedonistic appeal, and the great
value, of these wines. The reds of Cairanne and Rasteau, while subtly
different, are archetypal southern Rhône wines — fruity, heady and powerful.
They are infused with the region’s signature herbal, spicy notes, redolent of
the fragrant garrigue, or underbrush, that covers the parched, Provençal hills
anywhere where no vineyards or vacation homes have been planted.
These wines are at their best in vintages like 2010, when
the jammy fruit and substantial doses of alcohol — 15 percent or more is not
unusual — are balanced by fresh acidity and complemented by ripe, refined
tannins. Unlike the 2009s from the southern Rhône, which sometimes seem a bit
too big, a bit too dry, the 2010s are all about elegance. Yet there are none of
the negative connotations — thinness, a lack of ripeness — that “elegance”
sometimes implies.
2010 was helped, paradoxically, by a malady called coulure,
in which the grapes fail to develop properly after flowering in the spring. As
a result, the harvest was tiny — down by one-third or more for many southern
Rhône growers.
“We didn’t count the bunches, we counted the grapes,” said
Romain Duvernay, a producer and merchant in the region.
The remaining grapes ripened beautifully,
helped by hot days — but not too hot — and cool nights, which preserved
freshness. The 2010s are exceptionally polished, banishing any notion that
Rhône wines are rustic or simple. The only flaw is the lack of quantity.
“It’s
a vintage that will make wine drinkers very happy, vignerons less so,” said
Robert Charavin of Domaine des Côteaux des Travers in Rasteau.
That
is because producers in the southern Rhône, unlike some of their counterparts
in regions like Bordeaux or Burgundy, are
not able to raise prices much to compensate for a small harvest, even when
quality is exceptional. This is an area that makes a lot of wine, and while
exports and sales are robust, there has been no speculative hoarding. There are
plenty of good wines from Rasteau and Cairanne at less than €10, and only a few
bottles cost more than €20.
Which
to choose, Cairanne or Rasteau? The vignerons typically describe Rasteau as
more powerful, or “masculine,” and Cairanne as more elegant, or “feminine.” (When
growers say they favor a traditional approach, they aren’t referring only to
their winemaking techniques.)
The
differences stem largely from the terroir. The Rasteau vineyards stretch across
several south-facing canyons with various kinds of clayey soils, whose
vineyards bake in the Mediterranean sun. In Cairanne, the expositions and the
soils are more varied, with some sandy plots alongside the clay.
But,
as is often the case with neighboring — and sometime rival — wine villages in France, it
strikes me that the vignerons may overstate these differences. Both villages
feature largely the same grape varieties, with grenache playing the key role in
the red wines, complemented by syrah, mourvèdre, carignan and other varieties.
Rasteau
is the quintessential grenache village, with large stocks of ancient, gnarly
vines bearing this variety, which provides the brambly garrigue flavors. Many
of these vines were once used for vin doux naturel, a kind of fortified wine,
but now give the red wine of Rasteau its alcoholic kick.
In
separate tastings of roughly three dozen wines from each village, I found the
wines of Rasteau to be more consistent in quality than those of Cairanne. Yet
Rasteau showed a greater variety of winemaking styles, from traditional and
slightly austere to fruit-driven and forward to modern and richly oaky.
Compared
with other Old World
winemaking regions, this is still something of a frontier area.
“When
my grandfather bought this property in 1953, nobody wanted to make wine here,”
said Gilles Ferran of Domaine
des Escaravailles, which is perched atop a hill, near the highest point
in the Rasteau apellation. At 320 meters’ altitude, or about 1,000 feet, the
land was considered too rustic.
Now
Mr. Ferran makes some of the most polished red wine in the appellation, with a
striking purity of fruit and great freshness. The wines have found favor around
the world, and more than 70 percent are exported.
Other
Rasteau producers, like La Soumade, Côteaux des Travers, Bressy Masson and
Trapadis, have also built up a strong reputation. One estate, Gourt de Mautens,
has attracted a cult following, with critical acclaim and prices that match the
big names of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. (The 2010 red from Gourt de Mautens had not
yet been bottled when I visited).
Cairanne
is still working on raising its profile, and the wines are more heterogeneous
in quality than those of Rasteau. But a handful of producers, led by l’Oratoire Saint Martin and
Marcel Richaud, have received deserved international recognition. Some
newcomers, like Domaine Roche, created in 2009, have quickly made an
impression.
The
2010s from l’Oratoire Saint Martin are
something special. The estate has a lot of mourvèdre in its vineyards; this
gives its higher-end cuvées a savory aroma and a multilayered texture that
reminds me of Cháteauneuf-du- Pape.
If
Cairanne gets the same labeling rights as its neighbor, it is easy to imagine
the wines catching up in quality with those of Rasteau and other nearby
villages, like Vacqueyras and Gigondas. The application for cru status includes
new steps to improve quality, like a ban on mechanical harvesting.
“Of
course we’d rather be in the first division than first in the second division,
but it’s not the end of the story,” said Fréderic Alary of Domaine de
l’Oratoire Saint Martin.
In other words, 2010 might still be topped
by future vintages. But that will take some doing.
We have been taking care
of a dog for the past three weeks. The owners (our friends) needed to go to 
