Vintage Report & Recommendations

Rhone 2007 - The Vintage of a Lifetime

We have said it before and we will say it again…the Rhône is one of our favourite areas. Its wines are wonderfully varied from elegant, ethereal Côte Rôtie, powerful, brooding Hermitage, friendly,appealing Crozes Hermitage to velvety, ample Cornas. In the south, there is zesty Gigondas, plump,spicy Vacqueyras and powerful, robust Châteauneuf du Pape.With all these styles, there literally is something for everyone. Even for white wine drinkers, choice comes in the form of perfumed Condrieu, noble Hermitage or voluptuous Châteauneuf du Pape Blanc.

In these challenging economic times, we cannot champion the Rhône enough. Year after year, they continue to produce wines that go far beyond their price points. And we are not alone in our thinking. Many merchants and ‘those in the know’ say the same thing: the Rhône offers excellent value. In the Northern Rhône, many domaines produce as little wine as those in Burgundy (and at the same quality level) but at a fraction of the price. Likewise in the south, their wines are constantly overperforming. Their yields are miniscule, most are artisanally made. Yet, they remain in the shadows of more obvious regions like Burgundy and Bordeaux. In the current climate, it makes sense to discover them at all their price points and from all their appellations - particularly since the Rhône benefited from some of the best growing conditions in all of France in 2007.

The vintage produced some wonderfully succulent wines in the North and amazingly powerful yet poised wines in the South. Robert Parker liked them so much that he named 2007 as a “vintage of a lifetime” in the Southern Rhône saying that they are the best wines he has ever tasted from the region in the past 30 years, describing them as fusions of 1990 and 2001 (his notes on the Northern Rhône are still to come).

We are delighted to offer some of the most exceptional producers from these two regions – producers who are conscientious in the vineyard and in the cellar, leading to superb clarity of fruit, well-balanced structure and discernable ‘terroir’.

The Wines

As the growing season varied, so have the wines from both the north and the south. One thing they do share is the intensity of their fruit. Many wines regardless of appellation show what the French call ‘sucrosité’ or a tender sweetness. This most likely has to do with the wonderfully temperate weather that August and September bestowed on both regions.

The wines from the Northern Rhône could be characterised as ‘classic plus’. They have all the characters of a ‘classic’ vintage and then some - gentle sweet fruit, excellent freshness, wonderful balance and fine tannins.  Despite some critics who have been touting the Southern Rhône as the better of the two, other savvy tasters feel that the Northern Rhône has the edge producing wines with a great fruity lushness that also have great finesse – a rarity in this sometimes challenging region.

Though Robert Parker has not yet reviewed the wines from the Northern Rhône, his view on the Southern Rhône could not be greater. In his most recent newsletter, he heralded 2007s as “wines of a lifetime” saying that in his 30 year-experience of the region, he has not tasted wines with such  “unprecedented levels of quality”. For many producers, we could not agree more. The wines on the whole are lush. They have wonderful sappy fruit flavours
and juicy cores.Tannins are fine and sweet.

The whites…we could certainly not leave out the whites. Due to the cooler growing season in both valleys, 2007 is undoubtedly an excellent white wine year. Whether in Condrieu, Hermitage, St.Péray or Châteauneuf du Pape, the wines are unbelievably rich and complex yet also fantastically fresh, ethereal and mineral.