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(Click Images For Larger View) |
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| Some General Observations | ||||||
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a. Vintages in the Rhône After tasting through several wines from the 2003, 2004, and 2005 vintages, there are a few general statements that we’d like to pass on. We repeatedly heard how ‘atypical’ the 2003 vintage was due to the heat and drought. This was most pronounced in Côte-Rôtie where most of the wines had a pruney, sur maturité characteristic. This was less obvious in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The 2004 vintage was described as being more typical and producers compared it favorably to the 2001 vintage. While we agree that it is typical, we’re not sure we agree that it’s quite up to 2001 standards. 2005 was described as combining the best aspects of the two prior vintages – the ripeness and power of 2003 but with flavors more like the typical 2004 than the overripe 2003s. All of the 2003s we tasted, with one exception, were from bottle. 2004s were a mixture of bottled wines and barrel samples, and all 2005 reds were from barrel. b. The Nature of the Business We had appointments with six producers and managed to visit another three by just showing up and ringing the bell. Lack of time prevented us from visiting more. The wineries we visited were family businesses, often handed down from one generation to the next. With one notable exception, the wineries were generally small and unassuming. There were no fancy tasting rooms or trinkets for sale. Those producers who had wine available for sale had it at prices significantly lower than what we see in the States, even with the current poor exchange rate. All of the producers poured their current releases from bottle. Those with whom we had appointments also typically provided barrel samples, and a couple opened older wines to boot. All in all, the hospitality was wonderful, and genuine. c. Linguistically Speaking Neither of us is fluent in French. Many of the producers spoke English and chose to spare themselves from listening to us butcher their language. We were still able to communicate fairly well with those that did not speak English and they showed great patience with us. A few key French words, and a companion with a few more, go a long way. Gestures, facial expressions, and sound effects help too, especially when a Frenchman is trying to get it through your thick American head that you have a flat tire (“pffffffffffffffffft!!!”) |
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| Day 1 - Côte-Rôtie (click images for larger view) | ||||||
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We arrived in Lyon on the morning of July 7th and proceeded directly to the Hotel Bellevue in Les Roches de Condrieu. Les Roches is directly across the Rhône from Condrieu, which is a few minutes drive south of Ampuis (home of Côte-Rôtie). The Bellevue directly overlooks the water and has a great view of the terraced vineyards on the other side. We cleaned up briefly before heading to our first appointment. Domaine Ogier
Ogier is located across
the road from the vineyards themselves, just a bit away from the
town center in a residential area of Ampuis. Stéphane Ogier
(far left with
Dave Dyroff) met us in the driveway and showed
us around the facility. As we would see at many other
domaines, the winemaking facilities are all housed in an outbuilding
or two on the same property as the family home. After
showing us the fermentation tanks and white wine barrel room,
Stéphane then took us upstairs to his main tasting room/barrel
storage area where he treated us to the following
tastes:
As with most Côte-Rôtie producers, Ogier does not own its vines all
in one contiguous plot. He owns a few vines in one part
of the appellation, and a few more in others. Although neither of us
was taking detailed notes, tasting through the 2005
components was a wonderful chance to see the contrasts between the
different lieux-dits, barrels, and vine ages. The
Lancement and Côtes Rozier are definitely the class of the Ogier
stable (and are priced accordingly),
with the
Lancement being our personal favorite.
We also noticed We savored another glass
of the 1991 and then
thanked Stéphane for his generosity before bidding him ‘au revoir’.
Since it was still rather early and we were jazzed about actually
visiting the famed roasted slope, we decided to drive
around Ampuis and see if we could visit any other producers. When we
saw the sign for
Domaine Jasmin, located in town just
on the edge of the small commercial district, our course was set. As
we neared the domaine we recognized Patrick Jasmin
standing by his Porsche looking as if he was headed out. We stopped
to ask him if the domaine was open for tasting and he
directed us to ring at the door, where we were greeted by
his wife Arlette, who took us in and showed us their
facility. Mme. Jasmin was quite personable and took care to warn us
to watch ‘la tête’ as we descended into their old cellar.
She pointed out their personal cellar area among the barrels, where
among unopened bottles from around the world, Dave
noticed empties on the shelves of Jasmin Côte-Rôtie from as
far back as the ‘50s. |
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| Day 2 – Côte-Rôtie (click images for larger view) | ||||||
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Domaine Jamet The following morning we were greeted by a lovely sunrise over the
Rhône river. We had breakfast and assembled our vélos (bicycles) prior to heading out to our first appointment at
Domaine Jamet.
L to R: Greg and Dave Then we came upon “road not appearing in this film,” a rock and debris-strewn 28% grade that we could only photograph. After our ride, we had dinner at the hotel and hit the sack. |
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| Days 3 and 4 – L’Etape du Tour | ||||||
| When we arose Sunday morning, we packed and headed for Gap to ride in the Alps, content in having visited the terroir we have long enjoyed in the bottle. Now our attention shifted from vin to vélos… (L'Etape enthusiasts - follow the link for our tour details) | ||||||
| Day 5 – Cornas, Hermitage, Mondragon (click images for larger view) | ||||||
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We both survived the long haul in the Alps on the 10th and got a
late start the following morning. We had a 2 pm appointment in Cornas to make and we hurried down the road. Arriving in Cornas
by 1:30, we tried to locate Domaine Voge before getting a quick bite to eat. Navigating through the smaller roads of Cornas
turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than we were ready for and we had soon run over a small embankment that bent the
rim, leaving us with a flat to change in a hurry in 90+ degree heat. We quickly rose to the task at hand and were joined by
one of the locals that took pity on us. We thanked Maurice for his help and made it to our appointment, on time, but a
little hungry having lost
our “croque monsieur hour” to changing the tire. Domaine Voge
We rang the bell at the domaine and were soon greeted by Mssr. Albéric Mazoyer. Mssr. Mazoyer introduced us to
Mssr. Alain Voge and then began to take us through the cellar. Mazoyer is a sharp, energetic man
who clearly has a vision for the wines
of the domaine. After we had been shown the cellar, we were turned over to the vineyard manager and tasted through a few wines.
These are the domaine’s still whites (it appears they also make a sparkling St. Peray “brut” but we did not taste it). The “Harmony” is their basic cuvee, the “Boisee” a step up from that, and the “Fleur de Crussol” is their top of the line.
It is named after the Chateau Crussol, an ancient fortress
atop a rock outcropping overlooking St. Peray. These were all quite enjoyable to a couple of red-wine lovers, with the “Fleur” a noticeable step up in depth.
We then moved on to the reds. After tasting the wines we were taken up to the top of the côte and shown a portion of the Voge vines as well as the spectacular view. When we returned to the Domaine, Mssr. Mazoyer presented us each with a half-bottle of the ’03 Cornas “Vieilles Vignes” as a gift for the trip home before leaving. Most generous!
We had a 6 pm celebratory dinner planned at La Beaugravière, but were simply too close to Hermitage not to make a pilgrimage to the famous hillside and of course La Chapelle (left). We turned the van North and headed to Tain l’Hermitage, where we stopped briefly to get a quick bite to eat. We made the mistake of walking in to a wine shop for what we thought would be a quick look. Ooops. Shortly after entering, a rather large, boisterous gentleman thrust a Riedel with an amber colored wine in it under our noses. “Eeeesss beeeeg, no?” The young woman tending the store was then instructed to pour us several wines, which we tried to spit when “Mr. Beeg” wasn’t looking (not that they weren’t good – they were – but we had driving to do and he seemed to take the spitting as a personal affront). It was certainly an experience and Greg (it was his idea) had to apologize to Dave as we extracted ourselves from the shop some 20 minutes later and headed up to La Chapelle. With yet another driving adventure, we made it up to (and, with some difficulty, back from) La Chapelle, and wished we had time to visit some of the domaines. You just can’t do everything in a week. We left and made it to La Beaugravière by 6:30, thinking we were 30 minutes late, only to find out that they don’t seat until 7 pm. Oh, well, we could have stopped by Jean Louis Chave’s place for a photo op had we known. Returning after a brief tour of town and a stop for a Coke, we settled in for dinner. La Beaugravière had a hand-written wine list that was 34 pages and stunning in its breadth and depth of Rhône wines, yet it didn’t take us long to zero in on the ’90 Gentaz-Dervieux Côte-Rôtie Côte Brune. The dinner was stellar and the wine sublime. Our celebration over, we turned south to find our lodging for the
night,
La Salamandre, in Carpentras,
a town we picked because it is neatly situated between
Châteauneuf du Pape and our next cycling challenge of Mont Ventoux. We had everything planned just perfectly. Right. If any of you have ever
been to Carpentras you’re probably laughing at the moment because you KNOW what’s coming. Take your favorite quaint town with
multiple one-way streets (think Charleston, South Carolina), add darkness, make the street signs incredibly difficult to see, AND
consider that what passes for an alley in most cities is the average size of a ‘rue’ in Carpentras, then you’ll get an idea of the fun we
had each time we went in or out of the city. We ultimately decided
that the best way to find an address in the old center city of
Carpentras is to “follow the ‘Centre Ville’ signs until you’re in
the old town, then just drive around until you somehow find yourself
on the street you need.” That worked reasonably well for us. |
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| Day 6 – Châteauneuf du Pape (click images for larger view) | ||||||
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Breakfast the next morning was, again, a slow affair. While we were dining with a pair of Canadians who had the other room (and who had been in our tour group for l’Etape), a local reporter arrived to do a story on La Salamandre. We posed for the photo op and answered a few questions, thinking we had plenty of time to get to our next appointment at 10:30. Quit your snickering! When you’re at it as hard as we had been all week you tend to learn lessons a little less fast. We eventually got out of Carpentras and made it to our next appointment by 10:40.
We eventually ended up in the cellar with Fabrice's gale force winds still blowing while he opened several bottles of recent vintages. We did not taste the white wines, but we tasted the Coudoulet and Beaucastel rouges. The wines confirmed the conventional wisdom that Beaucastel is a wine to buy and cellar in every vintage. We were then treated to a ’98 Rouge and an ’86 Rouge in order to display different stages of the wine’s evolution. Fabrice again: “Beaucastel has three stages of evolution. The young wines we tasted are in the ‘grenache stage,’ the 1998 is in the ‘mourvedre stage,’ and the 1986 is in the ‘harmony’ stage." There were many smiles in the cellar while these last two were being consumed. Both the 1998 and 1986 are just beautiful wines.
Mssr. Paul Féraud was quite jovial. He spoke little English and we spoke little French, yet, we still managed to communicate fairly well. He began the tour of the cellar and tasting of wines as we discussed vintages, foudres, and our intended cycling appointment with Mont Ventoux the following day. He was quick to warn us that 3-4 cyclists die every year attempting to climb Ventoux, but seemed reassured when we explained that we had trained hard to be able to complete the task. He was also enthusiastic about reminding us, several times, that Pegau is “très traditionnel.” Mssr. Féraud’s daughter, Laurence (left, on ladder), then took over for the rest of the tour. Laurence speaks English extremely well and, like her father, she proved to be very personable. We were joined by a few other folks from several countries during the course of the appointment. One couple, in particular, provided a winsome moment. It was like watching a movie about an awkward teenager that simply makes you cringe because you relive some of your own gaffes through it. Such was the case as an American couple arrived and the gentleman (who was the living embodiment of the Chris Parnell character in the SNL “Cork Soakers” sketch) asked his first question about 30 seconds after walking in mid-tour: “Which of your wines is the one that got the highest score from Parker?” *Sigh*. Wine adolescence is a part of the journey and we should be happy for any system that may assist ours in maturing into a society that enjoys the pleasures wine can bring. We’d just prefer to believe that we never went through that adolescence and events like this remind us that we most certainly did. On to the wines - from bottle: Plan Pégau
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a nice
vin de table from grapes outside the CdP zone. All of
these were quite enjoyable, and the 2003 lacked the “overdone”
flavors that marred many of the ’03 Côte Roties, though it certainly
showed the ripeness of the vintage. We then moved away from the
table and in among the barrels: Laurence then moved on to what she called her “personal barrel.” This turned out to be an unbottled barrel of the fruit that made up about 80% of the blend which was bottled as the 2003 Cuvee da Capo. “Luxury cuvees” in the Rhône are often inferior wines to our palates, as they are often spoofulated – too much new oak, overripe fruit, etc. – “Pamela Anderson” wines. Not so here. This wine certainly had ripeness to spare – the oft-used “like a dry vintage port” is certainly appropriate. But it did not taste overdone. Too heavy to accompany a meal? Maybe, though we’d be willing to try. But stunning to say the least.
Laurence then complemented this taste with a taste from another
barrel, which was another unbottled barrel of 2003 da Capo, this
time the juice that made up the remainder of the blend. Again,
mammoth wine but not overdone, and a real treat. We profusely
thanked Laurence for her generosity in sharing these rare wines with
us. |
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| Day 7 – Le Mont Ventoux | ||||||
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Hoping to avoid making our third ascent of the day in the full heat of the afternoon, as well as any more thunderstorms, we arrived in Bédoin at dawn to begin our day of climbing. Vélo enthusiasts, click here to read about our adventures on Mt. Ventoux. That evening, sweaty and tired from our day on the mountain, we took some time in Bedoin to relax over a celebratory glass of Stella. Dave also couldn't resist the lavender ice cream (no doubt we were in Provence). We then headed back for our last navigation of the maze that is Carpentras. We collected our bags and stopped to purchase a newspaper with some silly article about Americans on holiday in it, then proceeded out of town. We stopped in Salon de Provence to have dinner and may well have offended the sensibilities of the French since we hadn’t had the opportunity to shower. No matter, we simply had to have one more classic French meal before we headed back to the land of fast food and fast living. The following day we left France with a greater appreciation of the lifestyle, terroir, and some of the Cols (mountains) we’d only dreamt of cycling. In a word, we came away ‘enriched’. We don't have enough space to properly thank everyone who made this amazing trip possible, but we certainly want to thank our wonderful wives and children for putting up with all of our time away from home training and traveling. |
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L’Etape
du Tour
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Le Mont Ventoux
© Gang of Pour 2006
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nce in a while an opportunity simply too good to pass up comes
along. This year, that opportunity became “Le Tour du Rhône.” It began last October when the Tour de France organizers
announced the route for the 2006
