Rhone Annual Report: Harmony in the Valley, and a Reality Check
The M. Chapoutier Ermitage L’Ermite 2019, second from left, a pure Syrah from the Hermitage appellation in the northern Rhone, is the highest-rated wine in this report. We were also stunned by Chapoutier's other amazing single-vineyard red Ermitage wines of the 2019 vintage. (Photos by Stuart Pigott)
When I arrived in Chateauneuf du Pape at the beginning of March, the new winery buildings gleamed in the brilliant sunshine of early spring.
Clearly, a lot of money has flowed into France’s second-largest wine region and most famous wine town of the Rhone Valley since the end of the last century, and some producers have started to imitate the architecture of their colleagues in Bordeaux: smooth-as-silk limestone walls, large wrought-iron gates and marble floors have all become part of the landscape.
However, I quickly discovered that most of the leading winemakers still have their feet planted very firmly on the ground. Philippe Bravay of Domaine de Ferrand insisted on taking me out into the vineyards in his rattling old Citroen 2CV to show me the ancient vines that give the grapes to his Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Antique Vielles Vignes 2019, which was our highest-rated wine from the regional appellation. Cotes du Rhone is mostly associated with warm and round reds for everyday drinking, but this wine’s stunning balance of richness and gentle tannins is an ideal introduction to high-end red Rhone wines.
Typically for the southern Rhone, more than 80 percent of these vines are grenache, and exceptionally the oldest of them date back to the beginning of the 20th century. That’s not common, but there are other vineyards like this.
Out in the vineyard, the thoughtful Bravay hit the nail on the head when he described the fundamental challenge facing winemakers in the Rhone, where the weather is often strongly influenced by the Mediterranean to the south. “The problem here is not getting the grape maturity,” he told me. “The problem is getting drinkability.”
Welcome to the Rhone reality check!
His shoot-from-the-hip manner was no exception, either. Collectors around Planet Wine fight for every bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape from Domaine de Pegau, but the winery looks like a regular farm.
In the slightly chaotic cellar, co-founder and winemaker Laurence Feraud almost fell off a precariously balanced ladder while drawing a sample of wine from a large old wooden cask. I’m glad that didn’t faze her, because that meant I got to taste the mind-blowingly concentrated and complex Domaine de Pegau Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Da Capo 2020.
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Another Rhone reality check is overdue. Plenty of consumers still seem to believe that the red wines of Rhone are packed with jammy fruit. However, of the more than 600 wines I tasted from the region, surprisingly few matched that stereotype. The string of mostly warm vintages that began with 2015 have resulted in a broad movement back to balance and character.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the highest-rated wine in this report, the perfect M. Chapoutier Ermitage L’Ermite 2019 – a pure Syrah from the Hermitage appellation in the northern Rhone. Yes, it is an enormously concentrated red with gigantic tannins, but they are very fine, and it also has great stony minerality. Only a hint of oak adds complexity.
Winemaker Michel Chapoutier’s great masterpiece is a career high point, but not totally unique. We were stunned by his three other amazing single-vineyard red Ermitage wines of the 2019 vintage and rated them all very highly. Tasting them was one of the most exciting sessions ever in my home tasting room. It made clear why the Rhone has long had a global fan club.
Apart from a few appellations in the north like Condrieu, which specializes in whites from the viognier grape, dry whites are in a small minority in the Rhone. However, the best of them are very impressive, and a few are extraordinary. That was certainly true of the M. Chapoutier Ermitage De L’Orée 2019, a pure marsanne that was the highest-rated dry white in this report.
We love the breathtaking deep floral honey, stone fruit and brioche character of this rich yet super-precise wine. All of these single-parcel wines from Chapoutier are made from biodynamically cultivated grapes, compared with the just 10 percent of all Rhone vineyards that are cultivated organically or biodynamically.
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Furthermore, they share outstanding balance with all 73 wines we rated 95 or more points. And we found excellent harmony among the latter, although what exactly that means varies depending on which of the more than 30 appellations you are in. The syrah-dominated reds of the north always tend to be sleeker and more focused than the expansive wines of the south.
In the southern Rhone the picture is quite complex because of the many other grape varieties cultivated alongside the dominant grenache. In all, 13 grape varieties are approved for production in Chateauneuf du Pape, but even in the new climatic situation, the role of each at any particular property exerts a major influence on the wine.
Chateau de Beaucastel, for example, has long been very committed to the mourvedre grape, (known as monastrel in its Spanish homeland). It helps gives these wines their impressive dark color and muscularity, as the Château de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin 2020, the second highest rated red in this report, brilliantly shows.
It is also an excellent example of what we find so exciting about the 2020 vintage. Like 2019 it was a warm, drought year with almost no summer rainfall. However, the fruit is often brighter and more expressive in the 2020s then in the more structured 2019s.
As Charles Perrin of Chateau de Beaucastel pointed out, “there were more exceptionally warm days in 2019 than in 2020, but the alcoholic content is usually the same in both.” In spite of that, the 2020s have a lighter feel to them, and together with the fruit that often gives a very satisfying whole.
When 2019 works well, however, the wines are really spectacular. We agree with Edouard Brunier of Vieux Telegraphe in Chateauneuf du Pape, who said, “the 2019s are really dense, but nothing is too much.” He told us he expects the best of them to be “extremely long living, and in a decade’s time they should taste rather similar to the way the 2009s taste now. 2020 resembles the 2010 vintage.”
BLENDING OUT THE ALCOHOL
The alcoholic content of modern Rhone can’t be ignored, though. For the grenache-dominated reds of the south, 14.5 percent to 15.5 percent alcohol was the norm in the 2019 and 2020 vintages, and some Chateauneuf du Papes had 16 percent or 16.5 percent on the label.
In the north, alcoholic content tends to be 1 percent lower. Obviously, 15 percent-plus is a turnoff for some consumers, even if the wines are well balanced, which was surprisingly often the case.
If you are looking for lower alcohol, then we recommend the cooler vintages. Of these, 2016 drinks very well now, although the top wines have plenty of aging potential. 2018 was a warm vintage but the top wines have a surprising freshness. From the first wines of the 2021 vintage that we tasted (usually cask samples), they seem to be even fresher, although more erratic in quality.
To pass judgment on 2021, we will have to taste a much larger number of wines. And to say whether the rich and ripe 2015 wines live up to their initial rave reaction, we would also need to taste more, but we are a bit skeptical.
No wonder that in the south there’s growing interest in grape varieties like counoise and cinsault, which have low grape sugar content and can therefore be used to push down the alcoholic content of blends. We loved the super-elegant and refined Domaine de la Solitude Châteauneuf du Pape Vin de la Solitude 2019, a blend based on 30 percent counoise. Although the idea behind this wine was to re-create something historic, it may paradoxically also be a taste of the future.
The other strategy to restrain alcoholic content and preserve freshness is moving harvest dates forward. Between the old wooden casks in his dark and narrow cellar, Auguste Clape succinctly explained this sea change to us.
“I used to be one of the last to begin picking, but we are now often the first,” he said. “The climate situation has changed completely and we must adapt.”
This strategy worked spectacularly well for Clape in 2020. We tasted each lot of the vintage with him, but because trial blends were not available for tasting, it was impossible to rate these thrilling expressions of syrah.
At Domaine Colombo we had a similar experience. 2020 is clearly winemaker Laure Colombo’s best vintage to date (she started in 2011). Cornas may well be the only appellation where 2020 is the superior vintage of this duo thanks to the wines’ greater freshness.
Now, every winemaker in the region who is any good is thinking about freshness and balance, with an increasing number getting close to the center of that target. The Rhone has undergone a reality check and is on a roll.
– Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor