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Never a Dull Vintage in the Northern Rhône
France: Rhône & Beaujolais, featured
Dec 2022
,It’s an interesting time for wineries in the Northern Rhône valley. On the one hand, demand for their wines, especially for small-production, single-vineyard bottlings, is higher than ever. On the other, nature hasn’t been playing nice for the last several vintages. Luckily, the best producers have handled the increasingly challenging conditions with aplomb.
Cellar Favorite: 1982 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
Oct 2022
,A lot of Condrieu is consumed in its youth. “It doesn’t really age,” remarked one friend. I recently tested the veracity of that statement when I joined a friend at Noble Rot restaurant, forewarning that I intended to serve a bottle completely blind without a clue how it would show. Personally, I have never drunk a Condrieu more than a decade old, but there is something thrilling about venturing into unchartered vinous waters.
Cellar Favorite: 1978 Etienne Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
Oct 2022
,La Mouline debuted in 1966, a year after the family purchased a 1.5-hectare limestone-rich plot of old Syrah vines interpolated with around 10% Viognier in the heart of Côte Blonde from esteemed winemaker, Joannes Dervieux.
Cellar Favorite: 1978 Domaine Alain Voge Cornas
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
Oct2022
,Every now and then, I am reminded of the greatness of mature Rhônes, especially from Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie and Cornas. Alain Voge was instrumental in putting Cornas on the map.
The Wines That Shaped My Life
Germany, France: Burgundy, France: Champagne, France: Bordeaux, France: Rhône & Beaujolais, featured, New Zealand
Mar 2022
,A charity dinner themed around the significant wines of my career threw up a couple of surprises. I doubt DRC and Blue Nun have ever found themselves reviewed in the same article. In these days of bleak headlines, the vignettes accompanying these eclectic wines hopefully put a smile on your face.
Cellar Favorite: 2011 Matthieu Barret Cornas Billes Noires
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
Feb 2022
,Cornas has been having a moment for the last decade, thanks to the excellent work of a new generation of winemakers who have breathed new life into what were once the most rustic, wild wines of the northern Rhône.
Cellar Favorite: 2009 Marcel Lapierre Morgon Cuvée Marcel Lapierre
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
Jan 2022
,Marcel Lapierre was a living legend in Beaujolais when he passed away at the age of sixty, in October 2010, just after harvest. Such was his renown that his obituary was published in the New York Times as well as in major newspapers across the globe.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Weathers the Challenges and Changes
France: Rhône & Beaujolais, featured
Oct 2021
,Châteauneuf-du-Pape has plenty to offer in 2019, 2018 and 2017, although not in the quantities of the preceding two years. All three vintages produced several wines that are extremely user-friendly, offering abundant, expressive fruit and adequate but not forbidding structure, which is what the market is demanding more and more of these days.
Cellar Favorite: 2006 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
Sep 2021
,It isn’t too often that a Cellar Favorite is also a currently available library release. That’s the case with the gorgeous 2006 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a wine that I marginally underrated when I tasted it from barrel in November 2008 and then in bottle a year after that.
Back For More Beaujolais
France: Rhône & Beaujolais, featured
Aug 2021
,My first foray into Beaujolais was not writing about it, but shipping it from one side of the world to the other. Mea culpa: I played my part in the not-so-carbon-neutral tradition of freighting jumbo jets full of Beaujolais Nouveau to Japan every third Thursday in November. Fortunately, I was never asked to dive into a swimming pool foaming with Gamay. I just had to get it there on the dot.