As I write this, Beaujolais is in a flurry. Its first wines of 2025 – the fragrantly juicy Beaujolais Nouveau – are being sent out across the globe ready for the impending (and inevitably raucous) festivities on the third Thursday of November.

And while the folk from Beaujolais are the undeniable overlords of the nouveau party, they aren’t the only players out there dabbling in this vinous fountain of youth.

When you pull back the curtain, you realise there are people all over Europe, and even in the UK, that make their own versions of these new harvest wines.

A long history

Beaujolais Nouveau is merely the best known (modern) example of a much wider tradition of drinking brand new wines soon after harvest.

Nouveau wine, in its simplest terms, is a young wine that is bottled and released almost immediately after harvest. At times they are little more than fermenting must – such as Federweisser in Germany (known as Sturm in Austria).

In Beaujolais it is made with Gamay, which is low in tannins, using carbonic maceration – where the grape begins to ferment within the berry itself, promoting fragrant, perfumed fruit aromas. It is meant to be light in alcohol, juicy and easy going.

As Beaujolais producer Christophe Pacalet says, nouveau is ultimately an unpretentious wine that you can drink while you play pétanque.

Around France

As an inhabitant of southern France, I was intrigued to see whether this area, more famed for its heady reds, was getting on board with the style.

Jean-Philippe Padié of Domaine Padié in Roussillon has been making a nouveau wine since 2019. It was a bit of an accident; he had a plot of Syrah that went through fermentation quickly and cleanly, offering him a delicious rendition of a nouveau style.

Padié now works predominantly with the indigenous variety Lledoner Pelut, which he says gives an even lighter, crunchier wine, with a hint of something maritime from the vineyard’s coastal location.

Similarly, in the cooler northern reaches of the Loire, Joseph Mosse of Domaine Mosse makes a fuschia-coloured wine called Bang Nouveau from a blend of the pink-skinned Grolleau Gris and Gamay.

And while there is an argument that nouveau wines are best made with lighter-skinned varieties, Romain Le Bars in the Rhône Valley proves that this isn’t always the case. His dangerously drinkable Nouveau Nez cuvée is made from Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan.

Traditions old and new

Nouveau wines are popping up across France. However, there are other countries that have a deep-rooted history with this style of wine – Spain, for example.

Specifically in Rioja, where the wines are called cosecheros. Last year saw the launch of the first cosecheros tasting in London, hosted by Ben Llewelyn of UK importer Carte Blanche and writer Tim Atkin MW.

Here producers work with Tempranillo, foot crushing the grapes and using carbonic maceration. Like in Beaujolais, it is a style that is embedded in the culture, despite also falling prey to the tools of mass production such as thermovinification and commercial yeasts.

And while the Spanish perhaps don’t partake in the annual country-wide festivities, the Italians certainly do. Also released in early November, Italy’s answer is vino novello, also made with carbonic maceration and with a host of different grape varieties depending on the region.

Perhaps the most iconic in this mix is the Bardolino Novello from Veneto, which brings much joyous celebration to the shores of Lake Garda.

Sandridge Barton in Devon, UK, has been making its own nouveau wine since 1995. Spurred on by a disruption in Beaujolais supply during the outbreak of mad cow disease, they decided to try their hand at making one themselves.

Intriguingly, their nouveau was – and still is – a white made from the grape Madeleine Angevine (affectionately known as Mad Ange), chosen because it’s their earliest-ripening variety, going from vine to glass in just six weeks. This year spells their first release of a red nouveau made with Pinot Noir and carbonic maceration.

Balfour Winery has also adopted this new wave British tradition with its Essex-grown Pinot Noir Nouveau. Following the stellar conditions of the 2025 vintage, the estate’s head of wine Fergus Elias was keen to show that ‘English Pinot Noir has the ripeness, the fruit and the finesse to stand on its own’.

This is only the second vintage of nouveau, but with such excellent fruit to hand, they’ve made a wine that is ‘playful and purposeful’.

Down with the kill-joys

There are pessimists who want to put down nouveau wines simply as a marketing stunt or something to bolster cash flow. If that is indeed the case, then good on them. Hopefully everyone getting involved is making some much needed cash and shining a light on their region.

But I think it is so much more than that. As Llewelyn says, nouveau wines have historical relevance and value. In Rioja, they show the diversity of their grapes and region, they regulate supply – especially important in a place like Rioja where ageing requirements can extend up to five years – and they give affordable access to quality wines.

Isabel Fernández of Rioja’s Bodega Abeica says that these wines have been part of Rioja’s culture ‘since time immemorial’. Traditionally, they were made to be consumed within 18 months of harvest.

Her family has been making a cosechero wine for four generations, and she believes they can have good longevity and weight, so she uses a parcel of 100-year-old Tempranillo for her cuvée.

Echoing the sentiments of others I spoke to, she says that the crux of making a quality nouveau wine comes down to the quality of the fruit and the stems, especially when working with carbonic maceration and with low intervention cellar methods.

The biggest challenge facing nouveau producers? Poor quality fruit. Because in the end, the joy of nouveau – wherever it’s made – lies in its immediacy. It is a snapshot of a harvest that ultimately takes no prisoners.

Playful frivolity

From conversations with winemakers, it’s clear that these wines are moving into a realm of quality and artisanship. Climate change has brought riper grapes and earlier harvests, and as a result we’re seeing more of these wines made without manipulation – a gradual phasing out of what Jon Bonné, in The New French Wine, calls ‘industrial pop wine’.

For years, the market had grown used to nouveau wines tasting of candied banana and bubblegum – flavours I once assumed were a natural byproduct of carbonic maceration, but which in fact come from a specific yeast strain, 71B, which is no longer used to the same extent as it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

While I am a lover of Beaujolais Nouveau – especially in its newer, more natural iteration – there is even more scope for playful frivolity and experimentation in other regions and countries.

In an industry that can err on the side of stuffy and get bogged down in rules and labels, nouveau is a perfectly imperfect antidote for us to share abundantly and joyously.

Like my friends Greg Lane and Sarah Adamson of Scout Wines in New Zealand said of their Pinot x Pinot (a blend of Noir and Gris) take on a nouveau, they made it for no other reason than enjoyment, ‘to keep the house happy’.

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Peter Richards MW, Ben Gubbins and Andrew Johnson tasted 137 wines, with 4 Outstanding and 26 Highly Recommended

Value South American reds: Panel tasting scores

137 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 4

Highly recommended 26

Recommended 92

Commended 15

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their still, dry red wines from any region and classification in South America with a maximum retail price of £17/US$22

Scroll down to see the top-scoring wines from the value South American reds panel tasting

Sweeping generalisations are risky in a smorgasbord tasting, but after appraising 137 wines, the overall feeling among the judges was positive.

With more than 20% of the wines scoring 90 points or more, four Outstanding wines and 89% of the wines Recommended or higher, there’s clearly real value to be found in South American reds.

Chile delivered most (69) of the entries and also many of the highlights. As Ben Gubbins said: ‘At a price point where Chile has been pilloried for being identikit and boring, these wines were anything but. Within each variety, there was real diversity between regions, which was impressive.’

Pinot Noir and Syrah were highlights, especially those from coastal and southerly regions, which offered fresher, elegant styles.

‘Syrah was a real standout,’ commented Andrew Johnson, ‘and I liked the purity of many of the Pinots, which over-delivered for this price category. The future looks bright.’

Chilean Carmenère turned in a solid, if hardly thrilling performance and it was a similar story with the Cabernets, save for a couple of exceptional wines that allied perfume and structure with drinkability.

Divergent paths

For Johnson, too many Chilean Cabernets were ‘chunky and blocky’. Fresher styles of Carignan, Garnacha, Malbec and Cinsault impressed, though.

Gubbins identified two divergent streams of Argentine Malbec: ‘One was extracted and surprisingly tannic, the other was balanced, well crafted and intriguing.’

The best expressions delivered captivating aromatic complexity (floral, peppery, brooding fruit) with deft integration on the palate. These wines were, to quote Johnson, ‘beautiful’.

Uruguay sported modest numbers and results, the best a creditable Marselan and some characterful Tannat, for which Gubbins identified some ‘smart winemaking’.

Overall, there was much here not just to like, but also to excite. Winemakers managed to deliver characterful, charming wines at these prices, and the judges urged more of the same, singling out regions such as Patagonia and Itata.

‘Really promising,’ summed up Johnson.

What to eat with South American reds, by Fiona Beckett

This tasting covered a wide range of grape varieties and styles, so it’s hard to generalise in terms of food pairings, but there’s a common thread in the wines, which is bright, upfront fruit.

In food terms, that means they can handle bold flavours, a fair bit of spice and cuisines and styles of cooking where several dishes are served at the same time – at a barbecue, for instance.

There are, of course, characteristics of each type of wine that will lead you towards particular ingredients and types of dishes. For example, it’s hard to go wrong serving Pinot Noir with duck or – lightly chilled – with grilled salmon or tuna; Cabernet is a classic for a good burger or grilled portobello mushrooms; and Malbec is an obvious contender for steak and chips.

Or maybe break new ground with Carmenère and a lamb curry, especially if it includes coriander.

Value South American reds panel tasting results

Wines were tasted blind

The judges

Peter Richards MW is the DWWA Regional Chair for Chile. A well-known broadcaster and writer, he co-created and presents wine and travel series The Wild Side of Wine and is co-host of the awarded Wine Blast podcast

Ben Gubbins is general manager and WSET wine educator at Vagabond Wines in London. A native of Chile, he previously worked as UK & Europe sales director for Dos Andes Wines before joining Vagabond in 2013

Andrew Johnson is managing director of wine merchant WoodWinters, also heading his own project Veiled Vineyards, which aims to unearth ‘hidden’ wines that might otherwise have missed out on reaching the market

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A common charge levelled against the French wine industry is its restrictive appellation legislation. Though drawn up with good intentions, it can indeed cramp winemakers’ creativity.

How freeing it must be therefore to make wine in countries like Australia, unhindered by such bureaucracy. But the local market can also have a constraining influence on wine styles – many drinkers have specific notions about exactly what they want from established classics such as Barossa Shiraz.

Scroll down for 20 scintillating red Rhône varieties from Australia

When it comes to lesser-known varieties, there is more space to experiment. ‘People are much more inclined to play around in the cellar with Grenache than Shiraz,’ says Jack Scholz of The Willows Vineyard in the Barossa Valley, which is why there’s been such a dramatic evolution in the style of this Southern Rhône staple over the past 10 years.

Not just in Barossa, but throughout South Australia and beyond.

Given their suitability to hot climates, it’s puzzling that other red Rhône varieties never took off like Shiraz. But now that does seem to be happening – mainly Grenache at the moment, but there’s also growing interest in Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignan.

The Barossa Grenache renaissance

Until recently, much Australian Grenache resembled an alcoholic fruit soup. But there’s a burgeoning contemporary expression that makes this variety the most exciting in the country. If you haven’t tried any for a while, this is the time to revisit it.

So what’s changed? ‘I got sick of drinking those bigger, heavier wines’ says Jason Schwarz of the Schwarz Wine Co, who made his first Grenache in 2002. Back then, he would pick very ripe, when the grapes were starting to shrivel. He’d destem the crop and age the wine for two years in 300-litre barrels.

Today, his Meta Grenache uses 80% whole bunch to bring brightness, freshness and ‘perceived acidity’, he says. He picks around two weeks earlier now, and the winemaking is gentler, using indigenous yeasts.

Instead of seven days maceration, he opts for three to four weeks and he uses larger format barrels, bottling after 10 months to capture the grape’s natural perfume. The result is balanced, drinkable and delicious.

Barossa Valley is home to the oldest Grenache vines in the world, dating back to the 1840s. Though planted a little all over the region, there’s an outcrop of sand from Light Pass to Vine Vale on the border with the Eden Valley that’s become a hotspot for this new style, including The Willows, Schwarz Wine Co, Vinya Vella, Spinifex, Ollin and Cirillo.

Elsewhere in Barossa, this modern version is favoured by Alkina, Geyer Wine Co, Yelland & Papps and Tscharke. For a fuller, more generous style, look to Charles Melton, Hayes Family Wines, John Duval, Tim Smith and Turkey Flat.

The grand cru of McLaren Vale

McLaren Vale is closer to the sea than Barossa and it’s not quite as hot. There are some extraordinary Grenache-based wines being produced here too, in a perfumed, red-fruited, slightly lighter style.

Blewitt Springs in the north-east of the region needs to be on your radar. It’s the source of some of the greatest Grenaches in the country. Yangarra’s High Sands for example is sourced from this Australian grand cru.

Walking here feels like crossing a beach dune, and although it’s just 15km from the sea, these soils don’t have a marine origin – it’s wind-blown loess over ironstone.

Yangarra’s winemaker Peter Fraser says that Grenache was originally planted here for its drought tolerance. He adds that few other crops would successfully grow in these sandy soils, which means that today there’s a proliferation of very old vines.

He describes the wines from this particular site as giving red and blue rather than black fruit flavours, and a brighter, more aromatic style.

Look out for McLaren Vale Grenaches by Bekkers, Aphelion, d’Arenberg, Ministry of Clouds, SC Pannell, Thistledown, MMAD, Bondar, Samson Tall, Brash Higgins, Gentle Folk, Sherrah and Varney Wines.

New varieties, further afield

Though more famous for its Riesling, Clare Valley is another South Australian region with some gnarly old Grenache. Thanks to the big difference between the hot days and cool nights here, the wines have an elegance and spicy/fragrant allure.

Sam Barry of Jim Barry Wines says that historically Grenache was always the cheapest variety to buy from growers. ‘It used to have that stigma of being a variety for fortified wine,’ he explains. Now it’s the most expensive.

He’s just bought two old vineyards in Clare, one dating to 1938, the other to 1954. Both have a spicy note akin to paprika or Szechuan pepper, and first vintages are highly promising.

Kilikanoon is another believer in Rhône varieties in Clare Valley. It makes Grenache, Shiraz and some excellent Mourvèdre, sometimes known locally as Mataro. The style in South Australia is different to Bandol or Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

It tends to be less dark and gruff than the French style, more polished and filigree. Sussex Squire is another good producer in Clare. In Barossa, try Mourvèdre from Hayes Family Wines, Hewitson or Soul Growers; in McLaren Vale, there’s Rudderless, Kay Brothers and Chalk Hill.

It’s still early days for other red Rhône varieties in Australia, but Brad Hickey of Brash Higgins proves they have potential.

‘Rhône varieties have become really interesting players,’ he says. ‘We’ve had huge amounts of luck with Cinsault, Carignan and Mourvèdre.’

His pure Cinsault cuvée Cins is reminiscent of cult west bank Southern Rhônes such as Domaine L’Anglore.

Back to blends

Belinda van Eyssen (below) is winemaker for The Cutting in Barossa, but she previously lived and worked in South Africa. She also makes an excellent Cinsault, but she points out that although Australia might be making very good varietal wines from Rhône grapes, ‘blends haven’t really made it here’.

The GSM – a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre – was popular for a while, but now it’s not quite as fashionable. One benefit of blends is that they put the spotlight on place rather than the flavour profile of a specific grape.

It was partly blends that led to South Africa’s recent wine renaissance. Will the same thing happen in Australia?

It comes back to the local market – if Australian wine lovers are turned off by blends, then they’ll never succeed. That hasn’t stopped Adelina in Clare Valley though, which has won praise for its Estate Introspect, a field blend of Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Ugni Blanc, Roussanne and Carignan.

As local winemakers master these characterful grapes, I hope they are inspired to blend them as well as bottling varietal wines. Whatever your favourite grape variety, it’s always good to find creativity and originality in your glass.

Top 20 Australian wines made from red Rhône varieties

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Languedoc-Roussillon: two words, three syllables each. You’d be forgiven for assuming some kind of parity. But Roussillon makes only about 5% as much wine as Languedoc.

Take a walk around Perpignan, just 10km from the Mediterranean and 20km from the Spanish border, and you’ll sooner spot the blood-and-gold stripes of the Senyera than the French tricolour. Street signs offer both Catalan and French names. Many locals believe Roussillon is more naturally grouped with Penedès and Priorat than Pic-St-Loup and Picpoul de Pinet.

Ask wine lovers to name the greatest estate in Languedoc and Mas de Daumas Gassac will undoubtedly feature. But what about Roussillon? Not so obvious, but there’s one producer that I would suggest without hesitation – Domaine Danjou-Banessy.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 10 Domaine Danjou-Banessy wines

A singular estate

Travel eastwards along the Mediterranean coast from Roussillon and Languedoc and you reach the southern Rhône. The pinnacle of wine here? Château Rayas is the main contender. In fact, when I first tasted bottles from Danjou-Banessy, it was the wines of master winemaker Emmanuel Reynaud that sprang to mind.

Now comparing the greatest estate of Châteauneuf-du-Pape with a relatively unknown Roussillon domaine might raise some eyebrows; but let me explain. Like Rayas, Danjou-Banessy’s wines are not only brilliant, but they are stylistically unlike anything made by their neighbours.

Both producers make wines of tremendous personality. Not always faultless, polished or perfect – but always exciting, fascinating and memorable. They share similarly extreme climates but make wines with delicacy. ‘Our aim is to make fine wines,’ says Sébastien Danjou, one of two brothers who run the domaine, ‘even if we have a hot and dry climate, you don’t have to make something violent or brutal.’

There are even similarities in the way both domaine’s work. Both use whole-bunch fermentation and shy away from new oak. Rather than rigorous extraction, both opt for gentle infusion. ‘Extraction is very important in northern areas,’ says Sébastien, such as Burgundy, ‘but we have lots of sun, so it’s not needed.’ His brother Benoît adds: ‘we work on concentration not in the cellar but in the vineyard.’

Ancient vineyards

Old vines help them to achieve this concentration; and by ‘old’ they mean between 60-120 years. They don’t know how far back their family roots go here in the Agly Valley, but ‘my grandfather used to talk about his grandfather in the vines,’ says Benoît. He’s the younger of the two brothers, enthusiastic and funny; Sébastien was a teacher before joining the estate, and still has a professorial presence.

They aim to have three ages of vines for each soil type: old vines, middle-aged, and young, as well as fallow areas for the land to recover. The domaine is certified organic, and they use biodynamic methods where practicable.

Depending on the cuvée, they’re happy to blend across vine age and varieties – but not soil type. ‘We can’t blend slate with limestone or clay,’ says Benoît, ‘because slate soil gives a different taste to clay and limestone.’

The wines

The cuvée Estaca – one of my wines of the year in 2023 – is pure Grenache planted on black marl. The Cinsault of cuvée Espurna is planted next to it. I have only once tasted French Cinsault this good – grown by Emmanuel Reynaud, part of the blend for Château de Fonsalette.

Les Mirandes is a herbal, mentholated Syrah of unusual pungency. Les Myrs is very old Carignan grown on slate. There are many fine examples of this underrated variety grown in Roussillon, and this one is particularly delicate and compelling.

As with Grenache, Carignan grapes come in three colours – noir, gris and blanc. La Truffière blanc is pure Carignan Gris, a grape the brothers love for its bright acidity. Clos des Escounils is a white made from all three colours of Grenache. Coste is a pure Macabeu, another Roussillon speciality, here producing a light, fresh and stony white.

One question that remains for me is this. Considering this is the hottest wine region in mainland France, how are the alcohols so mild? Whites range from 12% to 12.5%; reds from 12.5% to 13.5%. Sébastien says they’re not even the first to pick; as with Rayas, some mysteries remain.

Any comparison with the wines of Reynaud can only go so far; both he and the Danjou-Banessy brothers are firmly rooted in their own local cultures after all. But those seeking the finest expressions of Mediterranean grapes, especially Grenache, will find much to love in both.

10 fabulous wines from Domaine Danjou-Banessy:

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Blazing a trail up South Africa’s west coast, viticulturist Jaco Engelbrecht is on his way to Skerpioen, the sprawling old bush-vine vineyard rooted on white sand-limestone soils that produces the namesake Chenin Blanc-Palomino blend made by Eben Sadie for his Sadie Family Wines label. And right next to Skerpioen, in this arid coastal desert, Engelbrecht says he’s recently planted five rows of bush-vine Cinsault for Sadie.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 30 South Africa Cinsault wines to try

This isn’t surprising, given that Sadie’s old-vine, single-vineyard Pofadder red (see tasting notes below) was the catalyst for Cinsault’s fine wine reemergence in the Cape when it was released in 2009. Since then, more premium bottlings have joined it to form a tiny but impactful string of serious South African Cinsaults.

‘The challenge is, what do you do with it when the vines are young?’ Engelbrecht asks rhetorically. He says Cinsault only produces premium fruit as an older vine, and not many growers are willing to make the long-term economic commitment. ‘Cinsault is also difficult to manage. It’s not an upright grower, it can be sloppy; it quickly over-crops. Bush vines naturally limit the grape’s high productivity, but even then you need to crop it by almost 50%.’ And he admits: ‘Even though I’m a big advocate for Grenache in the Cape, the potential of old-vine Cinsault surpasses it.’

Respected viticulturist Rosa Kruger, recipient of the Decanter Hall of Fame 2022 award (the first South African so honoured), agrees that Cinsault is not an easy variety. ‘Even when the vines are older, the big leaves and bunches are prone to sunburn,’ she says. ‘Though it has a great future if handled properly in the vineyard.’ This finicky nature goes a long way to explaining why planting numbers are dwindling, in comparison to Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. SAWIS industry data for 2022 shows there are 1,694ha of Cinsault in the ground – the majority in Paarl and Breedekloof – compared to a total of 1,980ha in 2011.

However, just 145ha of this is deemed ‘old vine’ (35 years or older, as specified by Kruger’s Old Vine Project organisation) – though this does include South Africa’s oldest vineyard: a Wellington block dating to 1900. Stellenbosch, Swartland and Paarl have the most significant old-vine Cinsault holdings, the former two particularly important for premium expressions. And increasingly in demand is fruit from the coastal ward of Darling, where special pockets of ocean-influenced grapes make some of the Cape’s best Cinsault wines.

Then and now

From its origins in southern France, Cinsault is believed to have arrived in South Africa in the 1850s, under the guise of ‘Hermitage’. The grape’s true identity was only revealed almost a century later. Before that it caught the eye of Professor Abraham Perold, head of viticulture at Stellenbosch University who, in 1925, crossed it with Pinot Noir to produce South Africa’s own Pinotage.

Fast-forward to 1969 and Cinsault claimed some 13% of SA vineyards, compared to Chenin Blanc at 27% and Palomino at 16%, according to local wine authority Michael Fridjhon. By the 1970s, Cinsault assumed workhorse status as the nation’s most widely planted red grape, used prolifically (as were other hardy varieties) to resuscitate vineyards that had been decimated by phylloxera back in the late 19th century. High-yielding, the glut was used to bulk out and soften varietal bottlings of more expensive Cabernet Sauvignon, undisclosed on the label. Cinsault also had practical uses, literally being used to lubricate Cabernet’s tiny berries through the press. This practice became so widespread that many farmers planted some Cinsault vines at the end of rows for co-harvesting.

Though plantings may be at something of an impasse, and old-vine plots a hot commodity, Cinsault quality as well as the number of premium bottlings continues to rise. This is largely due to the star quality of the winemakers who are interested in it. Cinsault champions include Duncan Savage, Eben Sadie, Alex Milner, Donovan Rall, Adi Badenhorst and Andrea Mullineux, plus a growing cohort of rising stars. Their winemaking approach is undeniably new wave. Producers generally eschew new oak barrels and heavy-handed techniques in favour of more minimalist, low- intervention methods such as wild-yeast fermentation and old-oak ageing.

When mining for rare Cinsault jewels you’ll find rubied wines of startling complexity. Though big-berried on the vine, Cinsault is capable of delivering texture and tannin. The finer examples are light to medium-bodied, with moderately low alcohols. The best manage to balance Cinsault’s exotic aromas and red-fruited generosity with vivid acidity and tactile dryness.

South Africa Cinsault: 30 to try

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The world of wine is full of knowledge and misconceptions.

Knowledge can lead you down a rabbit warren of geeky detail which, while absorbing and fascinating, can make wine increasingly inaccessible to most wine drinkers. Cue rosé.

Rosé has always promoted itself as the wine which doesn’t need knowledge. Anyone can drink rosé and enjoy it – no vintage charts, no winemaking information, no complicated maps of terroir. The wine for everyman. But it does mean that misconceptions can spread like wildfire. Repeated and copied, they become cast in stone.

Scroll down to discover the 10 myths of southern French rosé

Provence is regarded as the cradle of the current rosé revolution with the Mediterranean lifestyle of the south of France contributing to the marketing image.

So much so that all of the rosés from the south are often grouped together. Being based around Grenache they must be all the same, right?

In fact, the south of France offers a vast diversity of styles, and this oversimplifcation is just one of the many falsehoods attached to rosé, along with the below:

1. Rosé is just for summer

That is probably true for any light, crisp wine – tannins do not shine in a chilled wine. A glass of cold pink or white with chilling condensation is perfect for summer.

Rosés with longer maceration and some tannins (think Tavel, right-bank Rhône and Roussillon) can not only act as great summer reds but are also perfect for autumn and winter, accompanying game, fish and cheese.

Much of Rasteau’s Vin Doux Naturel is also rosé, giving you a sweet wine to be enjoyed with cheese and dessert at any time of year.

2. It is best with summer foods

These include salads, goats cheese, fish and sushi – not exactly a myth but only half the truth.

Oaked rosés were originally created to complete the gastronomic range of food pairings, and those with more evident oak flavours can take on more robust savoury flavours such as roast meats.

Older rosés with their richer dried fruit notes go well with stronger cheeses and richer gratins.

3. Pale means good

No! Pale is created by a number of causes which can be done either singly, partly or altogether: using lighter-coloured varieties such as Cinsault; earlier harvesting while the colour is more subtle; the addition of white grapes (common throughout almost all of southern France), and very gentle direct pressing (the first-run juice being the palest) are all techniques employed when chasing a lighter hue.

Such wines are a fine balance between ripe fruit and fresh acidity. Darker pinks can have riper grapes and longer skin contact – some, especially in Tavel, macerate for up to a week. They are just as good, but more full bodied.

4. Rosé is simple

As with any wine colour, the styles range from simple to complex. And yes, rosé can be complex with some outstanding examples appearing from old vines, low yields, blending different harvest dates, spontaneous fermentation, careful use of oak and amphora, or longer ageing on the lees. These wines push the limit of what any wine can achieve.

5. It has to be drunk young

Most rosé keeps its fresh fruitiness for two to three years, and many definitely improve as the flavours integrate and open up.

After three years, secondary notes start to emerge, often with a gradual evolution of dried peaches and apricots giving a charming richness. Most estates do not keep older vintages so this is a hard myth to disprove, but tastings of rosés (usually the premium cuvées) going back 20, 30 or more years reveal some stunning wines.

6. It is all about lifestyle and image

Hard to dispute this myth when so much marketing is focused on lifestyle and image, and the packaging can be so stunning. It is, however, worth looking out for the rosés in dark bottles where the colour is not visible and the wines are protected from light strike.

7. Rosé is cheap

The majority of southern French rosé certainly falls into the cheaper end of the spectrum.

However, many producers, especially in Provence, are increasingly adding not just a premium rosé to their range but also more experimental wines which sit at slightly higher price points. The detail on the back label is often the clue to why a wine is a little more pricey with details of vineyard, grapes and winemaking.

8. Provence rosé is just one style

This is one of the weirdest misconceptions for producers living in the south of France.

Even locals cannot agree on the definition of Provence! Is it the Var department, or perhaps the picturesque lavender fields of the Luberon and southern Rhône? Are the very different rosés of Tavel and Bandol part of Provence? Different soils, winemaking, grapes and traditions result in many different styles.

9. There is no vintage variation 

This myth may be fast disappearing as the news over the past few years has highlighted the problems of frost, drought, fire and hail.

But there are also cooler and hotter vintages which result in different styles. In Provence, 2018 and 2020 were more delicate and fresh vintages, while 2019 was more robust and concentrated. 2021 was difficult and 2022 may be more like 2019.

10. Rosé is just for women

A seriously weird untruth. Is it because pink is feminine? That only men can understand wines which are more complicated?

There is no answer to this misconception other than real men drink rosé, too. Rosé is also for people of all ages. As with other wine, you just have to find the style for you.

For those keen to explore the variations and diversity of southern French rosé, try different wines from different appellations, a range of colour intensity – from pale to dark – and different varieties such as Grenache, Mourvèdre or Syrah-based wines.

Elizabeth Gabay’s recently published book ‘Rosés of Southern France’ (£22, Amazon UK/com/FR) sets out to explain and define the tastes, styles, traditions and winemaking of this fast-growing sector, showing that there is no singular style, but huge diversity and exciting new directions.

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Establishing a vineyard isn’t something you just rush into these days. Identifying the right site, carrying out soil analysis, selecting suitable rootstocks and varieties, procuring equipment… We’ve made a lot of progress in the past 80 years.

But perhaps we overthink such things. Some estates, such as Domaine Font de Courtedune, have grown organically, with major decisions often being made for practical, rather than stylistic, reasons. And the results, from Côtes-du-Rhône to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, could barely be improved upon.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for eight wines to seek out from Domaine Font de Courtedune

Caroline Charrier’s grandparents were both from Courthézon (one of the five communes that have land within the AP Châteauneuf-du-Pape) and they bought a farm in 1943 just within the eastern boundary of the appellation. It was mixed farming to begin with, but gradually the vines took over.

Grenache on sand

Courtedune is an old name for Courthézon – ‘dune’ as in sand dune. The area is known for this type of soil. Today Caroline makes the wine and her brother Frédéric tends the vines.

Caroline’s grandparents planted their first vineyard in lieu-dit Cristia. Other sandy vineyards followed: La Guigasse, Le Pointu, Saint-George, La Crau Est. What inspired them to work with sandy soils, I wondered?

‘Just because they were close to the farm,’ says Caroline. ‘Back then, people didn’t used to think about it too much.’

They’ve since added a stony vineyard located in lieu-dit Font de Michelle, but the predominantly sandy soils give these wines a particularly refined texture.

‘Grenache and sand are two things that go together very well,’ says Caroline, ‘because Grenache is a very fine variety, and sand gives it even greater finesse.’

Bush vine Grenache makes up 99% of their Châteauneuf-du-Pape blend; the remaining 1% is Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Terret Noir and Counoise.

I asked Caroline why they chose these varieties. Again, it wasn’t by design; varieties other than Grenache have snuck into their vineyards uninvited over the decades – vine nurseries can make mistakes when supplying young plants. But what survived was ‘anything that stands up by itself,’ says Caroline – unlike droopy Syrah, for example, that needs to be supported on wires or stakes.

No need to change for change’s sake

The domaine’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes-du-Rhône Villages and Côtes-du-Rhône reds are all whole-bunch fermented. Originally this was simply because they didn’t have a destemmer – nobody did in the 1940s.

But they’ve kept it this way for a reason. ‘The stems give woody flavours even though we don’t have any barrels,’ says Caroline, ‘and they guard the freshness.’

The wines are all fermented and matured in concrete tanks. The reds have a certain fleet-footedness and precision that makes them easy to enjoy – they build complexity over time, but don’t rely on concentration or muscle. So it’s no surprise that Caroline opts for gentle extraction by pumping over.

But once more, this wasn’t just a stylistic choice, it was also partly born of practicality. When Caroline took over the winemaking from her father René, she found certain cellar tasks – such as repeatedly punching down all the tanks – were physically too demanding. So she adapted her way of working to fit the space.

‘Led by terroir’

On the surface, being led by practical concerns, rather than an individual’s grand ideology, might appear prosaic. But I don’t see it that way. Rather than imposing their own designs, they’ve let themselves be led by terroir and ancient local practices.

Tradition is the wisdom of the many. In following it, the Charriers craft wines with a very specific sense of place – the singular sands of Courthézon.

Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for eight Domaine Font de Courtedune wines

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‘France is world-renowned as a gastronomic centre of excellence, but has more McDonald’s per capita than any other country, and Bandol is world-renowned for its complex and age-worthy reds, but 80% of its production is rosé,’ explains Guillaume Tari of Domaine de la Bégude about the contradictions found in Bandol.

The question over red or rosé is not the only big debate right now. The appellation requirements for the ageing of red wine, the percentage of the principal grapes in white wine, and overall their reputation as vins de garde are all on the table.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 20 Bandol wines worth seeking out

Bandol is the largest of Provence’s ‘micro-appellations’, with vineyards on small terraces interspersed with woods and garrigue, lining hills that form an amphitheatre facing the Mediterranean and on the plains surrounding the villages.

Sheltered from the Mistral by the Sainte Baume to the north, the sunny exposition is ideal for ripening Mourvèdre, propelling it to being Bandol’s superstar for the last 45 years.

Bandol at a glance

• History: Bandol AOP was created in 1941 by Lucien Peyraud of Domaine Tempier, André Roethlisberger (of the now defunct Château Milhière) and Arlette Portalis (Château Pradeaux).
• Vineyards: 1,600ha, 50% divided among 67 private producers, the other 50% between by three cooperatives – the past decade has seen a number of producers leave cooperatives and establish micro-domaines.
• Production & grapes: Rosé wines (Mourvèdre/Grenache blend) are 75%-80% of production, reds (minimum 50% Mourvèdre) 15%-20%, and whites 5% (300,000 bottles, usually Clairette and Ugni Blanc).

Tradition vs modernity

Historically a mix of red and rosé with some white wine, Bandol had a reputation for big, tannic, well-extracted Mourvèdre reds that needed 20 years before you could drink them, the appellation mandating 18 months in large oak barrels to soften the tannins.

Many producers feel that this is excessive, especially in the modern market where freshness and elegance sell better. Reds must contain a minimum of 50% Mourvèdre, giving Bandol its classic profile of spice, leather and black fruit, plus a tight, dark structure with great ageing potential; they are rarely big and opulent.

The Bandolais describe their reds as moody teenagers: vibrant and fruity when young, restrained in adolescence, then opening up with greater complexity when mature. Most producers use large old foudres, but a few are using new oak such as Château Vannières and Domaine de la Font des Pères whose wines have a modern, almost New World appeal, while the presence of Cinsault in a blend adds vivacity.

Some have embraced the reputation for big, oaked wines, extending the ageing to 24 months and including new oak. These often come across as more true to their heritage than wines that try to hide the fact they have spent a year and a half in foudres.

Others are experimenting with ageing in amphora and declassifying to Vin de France, most notably Agnés Henri at Tour de la Bon with En Sol, Bégude with its IGP Méditérranée Cuvée Thyrsus, and Vignobles Gueissard and Domaine Bunan’s yet-to-be-released wines, all which show a beautiful purity of Mourvèdre fruit.

Bandol: eight names to know

⦁ Château Pradeaux: One of the founding members of the Bandol appellation along with the Peyniers of Domaine Tempier. It makes good, traditional wines with a dynamic younger generation now in charge.

⦁ Château Romassan: Owned by Domaines Ott*, this is Bandol’s single largest private estate.

⦁ Château Ste-Anne: A historic estate, located in the cooler Evenos area of the appellation, making biodynamic and fairly natural wines.

⦁ Domaine Castell-Reynoard: Julien Castell has transformed his family vineyard into a haven of regenerative viticulture.

⦁ Domaine La Suffrene: Private estate set up in 1996 after leaving the cooperative, and making wine since the beginning of the appellation. Big supporters of agroforestry in the vineyard.

⦁ Domaine Le Galantin: Small family-run vineyard established in the 1970s.

⦁ Domaine de l’Olivette: One of the large family domaines, owned by the same family for over 200 years.

⦁ Moulin de la Roque: Bandol’s oldest cooperative, and producer of nearly a quarter of the AOP’s wines.

Rosés rule

The tradition for extracted, oaky wines does not spill over to the whites and rosés, even though, in the minds of many, the rosés are oaked and structured. They are, in fact, rarely oaked.

Exceptions are Font des Pères, with 20% fermented and aged in barriques and demi-muids, giving them a pleasing fruit-forward roundness when young. Bastide Blanche has also tried an oaked rosé, and Gueissard’s Cuvée Marcel is a bright, fruity Mourvédre fermented in oak.

Château de Pibarnon’s Nuances and Bégude’s l’Irreductible are both almost entirely Mourvèdre. L’Irreductble is a serious, unoaked, dark pink-red, while Eric de St Victor of Château de Pibarnon, recognising that Mourvèdre rosé takes time to open up, ages his Nuances in stoneware which gives tension and purity, before releasing the wine with a year’s age.

Although rosés must have a minimum of 20% Mourvèdre, they typically contain 40-70% and, blended with Grenache and Cinsault, create wines weightier and more concentrated than those from Provence, with most needing time. Rosés with high percentages of Grenache and Cinsault have a fresher style.

Originally, Bandol rosés were not released until May 1st but the market, needing the new vintage earlier, has brought this date forward to March 1st. Consumers are happy, even if most rosés are not showing their best and need at least a year before they start to shine.

It certainly seems criminal to shout about drinking Domaine Tempier’s rosé as soon as it is launched when it ages so splendidly. Fast-selling rosé – mostly sold to the local tourist market and the US – pays the bills, even if selling at half the price of the reds.

A white renaissance?

White Bandol is Clairette-based but, with difficulties in retaining acidity in the hot climate, adding Ugni Blanc and Rolle, and harvesting Clairette earlier, produces fresher wines which sometimes verge on austere and have a distinctive saline twang on the palate. Tempier makes an elegant white with 40% Ugni Blanc, and plans are underway to reduce the minimum proportion of Clairette from 50%.

Bégude has an amphora-aged white, others use oak, including Pibarnon and a new trial at Domaine de Terrebrune. Flexible rules means whites can be made and aged in a variety of styles.

Finding the balance

Damian Roux of Domaine Marie Berenice has observed that there is a growing interest in white wine, but is faced with a logistics dilemma: if the trend changes again, he will be left with too much white and there is only so much the rosés can absorb in the blend.

Black varieties have the flexibility of producing either red or rosé. During the pandemic, with producers concerned that rosé sales would decline due to the lack of tourists, they switched to producing more red wine.

Before the rise of rosé, Bandol reds were the star of Provence, and they are still impressive, but sales for big red wines which need ageing are a hard sell. Adaptation and flexibility may be the key: reds with no oak, shorter ageing and traditional styles, otherwise rosé may continue to dominate the scene.

Bandol: recent vintages

2021: Cool but dry. Vines shut down early due to hydric stress, prompting early harvests and underwhelming ripeness in the wines. Good acidity, balance and a very cool-climate profile reminiscent of vintages of the 1990s.

2020: A warm, wet year, causing mildew in the early summer, followed by a hot (but not too hot), dry summer creating wines which are balanced and aromatic. Tannins in the red wines are fine and silky.

2019: After a very hot and dry year, the rain in September served to boost the vintage, especially in late-ripening areas. Original fears that it would be a bad vintage have not been borne out and today it offers promise of finesse, freshness, fruit and balance.

2018: Hail in early summer served to destroy the fruit in the west of the region, followed by a hot and wet summer which made for a difficult vintage A good autumn during harvest helped restore the quality and the wines have balance and freshness.

2017: A very hot June and little rain resulted in small berries with concentrated fruit. Harvest was earlier than usual, but overall the fruit was expressive, although volumes were reduced.

2016: Good quality, although a slightly smaller vintage and not regarded as a great one.

Bandol: 20 top wines worth seeking out

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The Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainable viticulture.

They converted their 100ha estate to organics as early as 1950; biodynamics in 1974. And when it comes to facing the climate crisis, they’re not standing still; refurbishing cellars, planting trees, championing ancient varieties and developing new techniques in the vineyard.

Winemaker César Perrin explains…

‘The main reason we decided to construct a new cellar was to reduce the amount of energy we use. The climate is warming and every year we’re having to ramp up the cooling system. At three metres underground, however, the temperature stays between 12 and 14 degrees all year round naturally, so we wanted to make the most of these cool conditions by moving our cellar below ground.’

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for six Château de Beaucastel wines

‘We’ve built two huge subterranean tanks to fill with rainwater. We can chill the water using energy created by solar panels and keep the cellar cool with a system of windmills worked by the mistral. And we’re using all the earth that’s dug out to build new walls.’

‘And we’ve also had to adapt our methods in the vineyard. If you come here in May, the grass between the rows grows a metre and a half tall. Then we flatten it down and it creates a kind of carpet, helping to reduce soil temperature and keeping it moist. After five years of observation, we’ve concluded that soils that are grassed over are seven to eight degrees lower in temperature than soils that have been ploughed.’

‘We’ve planted 4,000 trees at Beaucastel. It brings shadow to the vines. But we have to find species of trees whose roots dig down deep into the soil because otherwise they create competition for water with both the vines and the grass between the rows. We’ve planted big trees, small trees – around 30 different types. But never pines – their roots spread too close to the surface.’

‘Another innovation we’ve developed is spraying the vines with liquid clay. It helps to hold back photosynthesis a little. It’s 100% natural, it’s clay from the estate, the same clay you use for pottery, it sticks to the plants naturally.’

‘Grenache is a fantastic variety; it can produce great wines. But the problem is alcohol. We know nobody wants wine at 16%, so we’re increasing plantings of varieties like Mourvèdre and Counoise. The blend now contains 30% Grenache, 30% Mourvèdre, 10% Counoise – soon to be 15% Counoise – along with Syrah, Cinsault, Terret Noir and Vaccarèse along with some white varieties. Counoise gets ripe at 12.5%, it’s our Pinot Noir. Originally it was used for its acidity, but today it’s also useful in helping us to reduce alcohol levels in the blend.’

‘We’re really proud of our grandfather Jacques for having the foresight to plant so much Mourvèdre and Counoise. And in turn we’re hoping that all these projects we’re undertaking will make our children proud of us.’

See tasting notes and scores for six Château de Beaucastel wines:

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When asked which is the most exciting appellation in the Rhône, there’s one that currently springs to mind before all others: Tavel.

I have to be honest with you: I don’t buy much rosé. So, given that Tavel is, according to The Oxford Companion to Wine, ‘one of France’s few all-rosé appellations,’ my response might be unexpected.

The Oxford Companion is technically correct, of course – the wines made here are paler than a typical red wine. But compared to other rosés, that’s where the comparison ends.

First and foremost, Tavel is a great terroir, and great terroirs make profound wines, no matter the colour.

That’s not to say that all Tavel is great – far from it. But there’s a growing band of winemakers, led by a visionary by the name of Eric Pfifferling, which is dragging Tavel out of the blind alley in which it had found itself.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 12 fabulous Tavel wines

From fame to obscurity

While Châteauneuf-du-Pape lies on the east bank of the Rhône, Tavel is located on the opposite side of the river. Considering their proximity, it’s surprising they were both among the five original wine appellations of France declared in May 1936 (along with Arbois, Cassis and Monbazillac).

Châteauneuf might have long left Tavel in its wake, but the wines of the west bank were once more highly esteemed than those of the east. So what happened?

It was Baron Pierre le Roy de Boiseaumarié who led the charge to establish France’s appellation system. He was the owner of Château Fortia in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Châteauneuf was given the appellation for making white and red wine; Tavel was allowed to make rosé.

Was this a historical stitch-up? Not entirely. Tavel was always known for making lighter-coloured reds, so this did make sense. Grow Grenache and Cinsault on sand and you’re bound to get a pale hue.

And back then, rosé was a much broader church than it is today. Dark rosés, or clairets, were more popular (and Tavel, according to the appellation’s production regulations, must stick to its traditionally dark colour). But lately, only the palest of rosés have been commercially viable. So Tavel has been languishing in the doldrums, as fashionable as leather trousers with matching leather Crocs.

Over time, winemakers relied on modern methods to force what was a great pale red into a mass-produced rosé, and Tavel became a wine that reflected its high-tech process more than its terroir.

In the words of Thibault Pfifferling, Tavel ‘chose the way of quantity.’ His domaine, L’Anglore, has helped to lead an ever-growing number of winemakers in a new direction – the way of quality.

Domaine L’Anglore

I’ve written about the glory of Anglore before, but no article on the Tavel revolution would be complete without mentioning the name of Thibault’s father, Eric Pfifferling.

Until 1988, Eric took his crop to the local cooperative, but increasingly he found he couldn’t stomach the resulting wines. So, in 2002, after spending time with some leading lights of the natural wine scene, he decided to go back to basics and make wines himself.

After speaking with some of the oldest winemakers in the village, he decided to return to the old ways: no synthetic chemicals, no machine harvesting, no destemming, no filtration, no blocked malolactic. The results were atypical – and a vast improvement on the status quo.

When I visited in February of this year, I spent the afternoon with Thibault, who recently rejoined the domaine after studying philosophy in Paris. He took me to see their spacious new cellar. Until now, they had been making wine in the garage under their house, which they outgrew years ago.

When it comes to their winemaking, ‘there are no rules,’ he says. That said, their typical approach is to use carbonic maceration in stainless steel and cement tanks, then use large foudres to mature the wines. They don’t use pumps, add yeasts or add sulphites before bottling, and only then to help avoid developing mousiness, the bane of some natural wines.

They make both their rosés and their reds (from other appellations) the same way – if indeed there is any real distinction. Their reds and rosés are often very similar in colour.

When they have to replant, he favours Grenache, Cinsault and Clairette: ‘for me it’s the triptych of Tavel,’ he says.

‘Cinsault is one of my favourite grapes. It’s Provençal – it’s really from here – and it brings fluidity and freshness… I don’t want super full-bodied, 15% wines.’

Their Tavels are quite the opposite. They have a great purity of expression, a silkiness combined with a fine, sandy tannic precision, and layers of flavour combining red berries, spices, flowers and herbs. No wonder so many other winemakers are finding inspiration in the wines of L’Anglore.

Domaine Moulin-La-Viguerie

‘Without Eric, I might have stopped making wine in Tavel,’ says Gaël Petit. This would have been a tragedy. Today Petit is making some of the most interesting wines in the appellation, indeed some of the most distinctive wines in the southern Rhône.

To put Petit’s comment in context, he’s no newcomer to Tavel. His family estate was established in the 16th century. He was the president of the AOC. It was his great-grandfather who first established the appellation.

It takes a lot to push someone this deep-rooted out of their land.

But like Eric Pfifferling, Petit became disillusioned with Tavel, and felt in his bones that something had been lost. ‘We were capsized by technology and science,’ says Petit, ‘we lost the understanding and savoir-faire.’

This loss of identity began in the 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s. Petit believes this reliance on new technology led to a kind of ‘collective amnesia’ among Tavel’s winemaking community.

On tasting Pfifferling’s wines, Petit’s eyes were opened; he immediately changed direction. Since then, with the mentorship of Pfifferling, Petit has transformed the way he makes wine, and now uses semi-carbonic maceration, indigenous yeasts and matures his wines in barrels.

Since undergoing this conversion, in the space of just a few vintages Petit is now making unique, unforgettable, resonant wines – true wines of terroir. ‘I feel like I’ve discovered what my grandfather used to make. It’s a start,’ says Petit, ‘a beginning.’

Le Clos des Grillons

The winemakers of Tavel are a varied bunch. Gaël Petit is a man of letters who you might guess was a lecturer or librarian. Nicolas Renaud of Le Clos des Grillons has a very different vibe; meet him in a bar and you might guess that he’s a mechanic or football coach.

In fact, he used to be a history teacher. But winemaking was a dream he wanted to follow. ‘I always loved wine,’ says Renaud, ‘and I thought – if I don’t do it now, I never will.’ So he took the plunge and retrained.

I asked whether there were any wines that inspired him to make the change.

‘Eric Pfifferling is responsible,’ he replied with a smile. A two-year stint working at Domaine de la Vieille Julienne in Châteauneuf was influential, too.

He bought 4.5ha of vineyards in 2007, mostly in Côtes-du-Rhône and Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Signargues, and struck out alone. He now works 15ha, including some plots in Tavel, which he describes as ‘an insane terroir’.

Like Pfifferling and Petit, he also works organically and uses carbonic maceration. ‘We’re making light-coloured reds, which was the original style of Tavel wines. Tavel isn’t a rosé as far as I’m concerned, it’s a clairet.’

‘I like to see light-coloured wines,’ says Renaud, ‘they make me think of lightness, freshness and elegance.’ All qualities that are common in his wines. Whether red or rosé, they are always light, crisp and highly drinkable, and stylistically original.

His whites see a week or two of skin contact so they don’t taste like traditional southern Rhône whites – lovers of orange wines in particular should seek them out.

Romain Le Bars

Tavel isn’t just drawing in winemakers from different professional backgrounds, but also from other parts of France. Romain Le Bars is originally from Paris, but came to Tavel to work with Eric Pfifferling in 2012. In 2018, he started making wine in his garage. The following year, he rented more vineyards and left to go it alone.

He now leases some cellar space just outside Tavel. Le Bars works 1ha in Tavel and 10ha in Lirac, all rented for now and being converted to organics.

Like the other luminaries of the appellation, he works mostly with carbonic maceration, with little or no added sulphites. He picks some plots early to retain acidity and freshness. ‘I don’t want that rich side,’ he says of his wines, ’I want them to finish straight.’

He makes wines under both Lirac and Tavel, but occasionally blends across the two if he believes it will result in a better wine, even if it means he can’t use the appellations on the label. Being led by the fruit, rather than slavishly adhering to appellation guidelines, is something all these producers have in common.

Expect the Liracs and Tavels of Romain Le Bars to be light, crisp and transparent, with more stylistic diversity than classic expressions, all with a sense of energy and drinkability.

A growing movement

These are some of the most distinctive producers in the new Tavel winemaking scene, but they’re not the only ones who are moving in this direction.

The incoming twenty-something brothers Jean-Baptiste and François Lafond, at Domaine Lafond Roc-Epine, are experimenting with new wines such as their excellent Tavel La Relève, an earlier-picked cuvée made without fining, filtration or added sulphites.

And the attraction of carbonic maceration is spreading. Florian André at the biodynamic Château de Manissy is now a fan; he appreciates the different aromatic profiles it can produce and says it brings out a saline effect in the wines.

Domaine des Carabiniers, Château de Trinquevedel and Domaine Maby are three other estates who are reverting to more sustainable viticulture, hand-harvesting and using natural yeasts in order to find a more authentic expression of Tavel.

Not everybody shares this new vision. It’s a more expensive way of working, and some producers feel they can’t risk raising prices. Others simply don’t enjoy the flavour profiles produced by carbonic maceration.

But for me the superior style is clear. The pale reds of Tavel are among the most exciting wines in the Rhône Valley. Forward the revolution.

See Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for 12 top Tavel wines:

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What’s the most underrated red grape variety in the world? Most of us have an underdog we like to get behind, and at the top of my list is Cinsault.

It has long been considered a second-class variety, but more and more talented winemakers are now convinced of its quality, creating wines of unusual transparency, clarity and definition. And not a moment too soon. Over the past two decades, few varieties have been ripped from global vineyards at the same rate as Cinsault.

I pulled together 37 wines, and a panel of five experts, to help reveal where Cinsault is flourishing and who is making the finest examples of this beguiling variety.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring Cinsault wines

A grape in search of itself

Cinsault originated in the south of France. It produces big bunches of large grapes that are delicious straight from the vine. These big, juicy berries can make for large yields, so it has long been known for quantity, rather than quality.

On top of this, in a land that values darkly-coloured wines, Cinsault produces reds with a very pale tint. ‘It has never been taken seriously,’ says Florian André of Château de Manissy – one of the growing band of Rhône winemakers who are now convinced of its potential.

Drawn to hot weather, Cinsault wandered the southern Mediterranean in search of prosperity: Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey. But it wasn’t until it travelled further still, to South Africa and Chile, that it was really understood.

Some grapes, such as Nebbiolo, rarely ever produce great wines outside their own backyard, but Cinsault is the opposite. It needed to leave home before it could really thrive.

A quixotic variety

Cinsault produces red wines – but only just. In many ways, they have more in common with whites. These aren’t substantial wines, built around tannin and density, they’re fragrant wines built around acidity, their slender tannins often closer to a fine Darjeeling than a Cabernet Sauvignon.

It takes well to whole bunch fermentation, which can help to bolster its structure and add herbal notes to its high-definition red fruit flavours. I typically found crunchy redcurrant, raspberry and cranberry alongside herbal bitters and blood orange.

South African Lukas van Loggerenberg makes an excellent example. ‘Me and my cellar team love the grape in the cellar during harvest,’ he says. ‘There’s always this beautiful perfume of rose petals in the air.’

These are lightly extracted wines, often with little or no obvious oak influence, and moderate alcohol. They are the opposite of the thick, heavy-going, ‘icon’ wines of the 1990s. They are wines of space and light.

And, like white wines, they need to be chilled. Not fully, just half way to fridge temperature. These are dry, refreshing tonics, often with a bitter nip at the end.

Cin City: the tasting

Five Cinsault-loving wine writers gathered together on 21st September at The Drapers Arms, Islington, to share their impressions: Alice Lascelles, Alistair Cooper MW, Henry Jeffreys, Sarah Abbott MW and myself.

We tasted 37 wines from five countries, all at least 85% Cinsault, and averaged our scores to create a leaderboard.

Cinsault wines leaderboard

A remarkable seven out of the top 10 wines were from South Africa. As a country that has so embraced innovation and terroir expression of late, it’s no surprise that they’ve had such success with Cinsault; they just seem to get it more than any other nation. Their impressive stocks of old vines – and brave winemakers – no doubt helps.

It’s a grape which seems at home across the whole of the Coastal Region, with excellent wines from Darling, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Swartland and Wellington.

See Cinsault: South Africa’s new star from old vines

Compared to other countries, the South African examples tended to be particularly pale and herbal expressions of the grape, often with impressive finesse and tension.

Examples from Chile were all from one region however, Itata Valley, in the south of the country. Results were more mixed, but with one in the top ten, Chile also proved it can weave magic with Cinsault, often in a slightly plumper, rounder style.

Pure Cinsault remains relatively rare in France, and the four wines we tasted were typically more concentrated than the South African and Chilean versions. After the tasting, Nick Gibson, owner of the Drapers Arms, unearthed a rare bottle of Pas de l’Escalette Ze Cinsault 2019 from the pub’s excellent cellar, which demonstrated the potential in Pic Saint Loup.

With only two examples from California and one from Lebanon, it’s hard to draw any conclusions. But with both countries placing a wine in the top five, Cinsault clearly feels at home in both.

Cinsault has arrived

Faouzi Issa of Domaine des Tourelles in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley explains that in the 1980s, grapes like Cinsault were pulled out in favour of ‘rough, tough French varieties’ like Cabernet Sauvignon, but he believes the future in his region belongs to Mediterranean grapes such as Carignan and Cinsault. And with its love of hot, dry places, it’s well suited to endure the challenges of our changing climate.

With such an unusual profile, Cinsault won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But after years of being misunderstood and maltreated, Cinsault’s star has finally risen.

My personal tasting notes and scores are featured below.

See Matt Walls’ top-scoring Cinsault wines

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Château Rayas, Gourt de Mautens, Cros de la Mûre and Moulin de la Gardette. What do these estates all have in common?

Sure, they’re all among the very best in their respective appellations, but there’s something else, something rather more peculiar.

They all wait for it to rain before picking their grapes.

Most winemakers prefer a little more control when deciding on picking dates. They carefully measure ripeness and sugar levels, rather than leaving it to the will of the gods. And rain brings with it the risk of dilution and mould.

So why do they do it? It seems they all have slightly different reasons, but according to Jean-Baptiste Meunier of Domaine Moulin de la Gardette in Gigondas, there are several benefits.

Scroll down to see Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for eight Moulin de la Gardette wines

Why wait for the rains to come?

He finds that it brings drinkability to the finished wines and gives them rounder tannins. Admittedly to begin with he was concerned that it might reduce acidity due to dilution, but in his experience this has not been the case.

He does gain a little extra volume, but if anything the wines are fresher for it. And so far, his grapes are robust enough to fight off any serious rot.

For some, a major benefit of picking after it rains is cleanliness: it washes the grapes clean before picking and pressing. Meunier wondered if it might also wash away the natural yeasts present on the grape skins. Yet his ferments still start successfully without the need to add any cultured yeasts.

With organic viticulture, very light filtration and very low sulphite additions, his wines are ‘not natural’, he says, ‘but close to natural’.

Whether a wine is natural or not is, to me at least, secondary to whether or not it is delicious. And Meunier’s wines are certainly that. They are also fresh, detailed, balanced and highly drinkable.

It’s surprising that his wines aren’t better known. They are beautiful expressions of Gigondas that are among the most brilliant wines of the Southern Rhône.

Jean-Baptiste Meunier’s winemaking background

After a stint at Diamond Creek in Napa Valley, California, Meunier returned to the family estate in 1988. He helped his parents to make the wines until 1993, after which point he took over the reins.

He’s not quite sure how far back his winemaking roots go, but he’s at least the fifth generation to be making wines here at Moulin de la Gardette.

With just 10ha of vines, Meunier is keen to continue making exclusively Gigondas. ‘It’s on a human scale, and it’s enough,’ he says.

Indeed, Gigondas is all he makes; three red cuvées and a little rosé. (Rosé is permitted in Gigondas, but overall production is miniscule).

He has a few old Clairette vines dotted around, so if and when white Gigondas is permitted by the appellation authorities (which could be soon), he might make some of that too.

His 25 parcels of vines are dispersed around the appellation. Most are planted just to the south of the village in the adjacent lieux-dits of La Gardette, Les Bosquets, Saint-Jean and Jasio, sitting at around 300m altitude.

La Gardette is mostly clay limestone with small pebbles, but otherwise he describes the soils here as a mosaic, with varied patches of clay, sand and pudding stone.

Details of the wines in the range

To describe the Petite Gardette cuvée as ‘entry-level’ doesn’t really do it justice, though it is quite different from his Tradition and Ventabren bottlings. It’s made from younger vines between nine and 23 years old, and is fermented and aged for 10 months in concrete. It’s certainly the most immediate and fruity style of the three.

Where the Petite Gardette is almost entirely destemmed, the Tradition and Ventabren cuvées are whole bunch-fermented.

During the 2000s Meunier experimented with using destemming for his wines, and although it made them more accessible, he’s discovered that it has reduced their ability to age.

‘It was an error for us,’ he concedes, which he’s since corrected. Outside of this trial period his wines age reliably for 20 years, sometimes much longer.

The Tradition bottling is from older vines, around 50 to 60 years old. And although Ventabren isn’t a single vineyard wine, it’s drawn from the same, 90-year-old vines every year. These are the oldest vines in the estate, mostly from lieux-dits Jasio, L’Argnée, La Gardette and Les Terres.

The blends are a little different; both Tradition and Ventabren contain mostly Grenache and 10% Cinsault, but the former has 20% Mourvèdre in the blend, whereas the latter instead has 10% Syrah.

Tradition and Ventabren are now both aged exclusively in foudres and demi-muids. They’re largely old barrels, but when he needs to replace one, he buys it new in order to ensure his barrels are home only to yeasts and bacteria that are native to his cellar.

Patience is a virtue

For the last three vintages, he’s worked with one of his children alongside him.

‘It’s an immense pleasure to make wine with my daughter,’ he says, but for now she’s off travelling again; she’s 23 and still has itchy feet.

‘Perhaps she’ll come back,’ he hopes. But Jean-Baptiste doesn’t mind waiting. The rain has taught him that.

See Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for eight Moulin de la Gardette wines

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Southern Rhône white wines

Donovan Rall burst on to the Cape wine scene just over a decade ago, when the inaugural 2008 vintage of his Rall White blend earned a five-star rating in South Africa’s Platter Guide wine bible.

He followed the feat up with two more five-star ratings in 2009 and 2010, firmly cementing this BFG (blond friendly giant) as one of the country’s new winemaking stars.

Scroll down for tasting notes of the latest releases from Donovan Rall

Today it’s not just his Rall White that wows the critics – though the new 2019 vintage is yet another cracker. His Rall Red blend, single-vineyard Ava Chenin Blanc and Syrah, and a slew of other varietal wines are collector favourites. All are incredible value.

That is, if you can find them. While there are some 8,300 bottles of the 2019 Rall White, there’s only 4,500 of his 2019 Grenache Blanc and 1,300-1,700 of the new 2018 Ava cuvées.

Focus is firmly on quality over quantity, and Rall is passionate about uncovering and reviving abandoned vineyards. With help from the Cape’s renowned viticulturalist Rosa Kruger, he has bought up parcels in a number of regions, as well as forging contracts with farmers of old-vine plots. In the cellar he works with old oak, concrete eggs and amphorae and lets the wines speak for themselves.

At a recent virtual tasting he gave some insights into of his new-release 2019 wines (and 2018 Rall Red), all available from UK importer Justerini & Brooks.

Grenache Blanc

From the Heidedal vineyard in Piekenierskloof, where ungrafted vines averaging 20 years old are planted at 650m on sandstone.

Rall says: ‘Out of all the Grenache Blanc vineyards I take fruit from, this is the only one I could see as a varietal wine – it has such great balance. There’s hot days, cool nights, good radiation and long, slow ripening. We do two picks, to get super-fresh acidity as well as fruit ripeness, leaving them as whole bunch. We ferment in concrete eggs, take it through malo, then bottle after six or seven months.’

White blend

A Chenin Blanc-led blend (68% in 2019) mostly from a Paardeberg vineyard planted in 1970 along, plus 15-year old Verdelho vines on schist (28%) and Viognier (4%).

Rall says: ‘A few years ago I did a vintage with Eben Sadie and tasted the Verdelho that went into Palladius and just loved the freshness and high acid, which makes it a great blending component. The 2019 is the highest acid white I’ve ever made (6.3g/L total acidity; 3.3pH) – the PH was so low it stopped the wine going through malo. Verdelho is the one thing in my portfolio I want to do as a single variety and I reckon I have South Africa’s best vineyard.’

Ava Chenin Blanc

From a single-vineyard in Kasteelberg on schist (next to the Ava Syrah vineyard), the first vintage made in 2016.

Rall says: ‘This 2019 vintage is the best Ava I’ve made. The vineyard has such an identity every vintage. The fruit used to go into the Rall White but it changed the character of that wine so much I decided to bottle it as a single-vineyard. Chenin usually has a broad texture and is yellow in fruit profile. This vineyard has that but it is so mineral too, with the smell of fresh hay. On granite you can get four tonnes of fruit per hectare. Here, on schist, if I get two tonnes I’m jumping through the roof!’

Cinsault

A blend of 40% Darling fruit and 60% from the same 1952-planted vineyard in Swartland that contributes to David & Nadia Sadie’s Elpidios and Duncan Savage’s Follow the Line red blends.

Rall says: ‘Duncan farms the 39-year-old dry-farmed Darling vineyard and I get one section. It is the best Cinsault vineyard I’ve ever worked with. The fruit is structured yet quite elegant with fine, feminine tannins. Cinsault has massive bunches. A crate of Syrah weighs 14kg or 15kg, but a crate of Cinsault weighs 25kg. You can’t imagine how you could make decent wine from it, but you can!’

Red blend

A Syrah-led, 100% Swartland blend that, since 2016, is left in bottle a year before release because of the density and structure.

Rall says: ‘It’s the first Rall Red I’ve got under 14% alcohol! This blend is usually around 90% Syrah, but in drought-stricken 2018 I didn’t want to acidify and needed to balance the concentration, so Grenache (12%), Cinsault (8%) and especially Carignan (10%) play a much bigger role in adding that freshness. The Grenache comes from 25-year-old bushvines. South African Grenache is not comparable to the Rhône – it gives more freshness, sweetness and perfume.’

Ava Syrah

From a 21-year-old schist vineyard next to the Ava Chenin Blanc vineyard.

Rall says: ‘It’s hard to think both were undiscovered before I found them in 2016. The fruit just went to the local co-op. The farmer even sent his sheep in to eat the grapes! For the first vintage (2017) I took the whole 2.4ha and got just 700 bottles. This 2019 is the biggest yield yet, still at only 1,700 bottles. The Ava Syrah vineyard has such character – it’s so concentrated, you need to be careful not to over extract – which is why, like the Ava Chenin, I keep it separate from the Rall wines. It’s a vineyard that’s very close to my heart. I put so much effort into it but I’ll never stop farming it, despite the tiny yields.’

Donovan Rall: six latest releases

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Cinsault: South Africa’s new star from old vines

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Once just an understudy to more noble French grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, South African Cinsault is finally having its time in the limelight.

Cinsault (also spelled Cinsaut) has its origins in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. Thanks to its ability to tolerate extreme temperatures, resist drought and disease, and give large yields, it quickly became an important variety in hot, arid wine regions – including South Africa.

Historians think it arrived in the Cape in the 1850s, under the name Hermitage. It wasn’t until almost a century later that ampelographers confirmed it was the same grape as Cinsault.

Scroll down for tasting notes of 26 South African Cinsault wines to try

In 1925 (when still called Hermitage) Professor Abraham Perold, head of viticulture at Stellenbosch University, crossed the grape with Pinot Noir to give South Africa’s indigenous Pinotage.

For years Cinsault was the backbone of much of the Cape’s wine industry, used for red wine production as well as brandy distillation. By the 1970s, it was South Africa’s most widely planted grape.

Cinsault’s fortunes changed with the increasing popularity of Bordeaux varieties. Growers grubbed up many established old bushvine vineyards in favour of the more noble Cabernet Sauvignon.

What vineyards were left were used for blending – as a cheap way to bulk out expensive varietal-labelled Cabernet and to soften its harsher tannins.

The pale-coloured juice from Cinsault’s huge berries, as well as its aromatic candy-floss, floral and crunchy red berry fruit profile, light-to-medium body and softer tannins were never considered worthy as a varietal wine when big, dark extracted reds were the fashion.

Fast forward to today, and lighter-style reds are very much what wine lovers are clamouring for. And South Africa’s winemakers are on top of the trend.

Terroir-driven

Eben Sadie of The Sadie Family wines was the first to put Cinsault back on the map as a premium variety. He released South Africa’s first single-vineyard Cinsault, Pofadder, in 2009.

Before long, more producers were reclaiming old, dry-farmed bushvine vineyards to make single-varietal and single-vineyard wines of their own.

‘Cinsault is by far the grape that is best suited to the Cape,’ Sadie told Decanter in 2018. ‘It has a great affinity and just loves the soil here.’

Not only does it express its terroir well, he says, but it’s a variety that perfectly suits today’s drinking culture. ‘We live in a time where people don’t age wines and Cinsault is perfect for drinking early – but can also age.’

Alex Milner of Natte Valleij is another fascinated by Cinsault and how terroir-driven it can be. For his Cinsault Collective, he creates varietal wines from Simonsberg, Darling, Stellenbosch and Swartland that each have a distinct identity.

As with many Cape winemakers creating varietal Cinsaults today, he likes to use whole-bunch fermentation and avoid oak.

‘I like to call Cinsault the “working man’s Pinot”,’ he told Decanter in 2018. ‘One needs to treat it with huge respect. I don’t believe it needs oak – perhaps the environment of a seasoned barrel, but lashings of oak is unsympathetic.’

Daniel Grigg of Dorset-based importer and merchant Museum Wines has worked with Milner since 2018, describing him as ‘the Cinsault whisperer’.

While the variety remains a hand-sell (‘I can count on zero hands how often people ask us for Cinsault’), Grigg says once customers taste it, they’re converts.

‘I’ve suggested it to more than one customer understandably loathe to pay £30 for mediocre Beaune, which has resulted in our sales team now regularly being asked for South African Cinsault,’ he explains.

The Cape’s red Burgundy

Cape winemakers make the comparison with Pinot Noir often – on both wine style and value.

‘I love lighter reds and I love Pinot Noir, but I don’t have the guts to try it here in Swartland. And nor do I think anyone should,’ explains Donovan Rall of Rall Wines.

‘But we have so much of this old bushvine Cinsault around, why not make a fresh Beaujolais-style wine from it, or emulate those old, elegant Chateau Libertas-style wines that still drink beautifully after 20, 30, 40 years?

‘Cinsault has structure and elegance, and keeping the stems on with whole-bunch fermentation gives fine, feminine tannins. When fully ripe, the alcohol naturally sits around 12.5% and, when not dominated by oak, they are such vibrant, lighter-style reds.

‘Plus, Pinot Noir grapes are three to four times the price of old-vine Cinsault, so we could make wines on a big scale at a reasonable price. So much we ship overseas as bulk wine.’

‘10 years ago I don’t think there were even 10 varietal Cinsaults in South Africa; now look. If the market catches on to how good our Cinsault is, we could make incredible wines!’

Duncan Savage agrees: ‘We have a wealth of old-vine Cinsault that has incredible complexity in the glass. I love elegance and purity, and Cinsault offers just this. And it punches above its weight for the price. Give top South African Cinsault to a few Burgundy lovers blind and you will surprise a lot of people!’

Rich past, bright future

For Ian Naude of Naude Wines and Corlea Fourie of Bosman Family Vineyards it is the special place in South Africa’s wine history – as a parent of Pinotage and the component of so many iconic blends – that makes Cinsault so special.

‘Cinsault has stood the test of time to be rediscovered by its makers,’ says Fourie. ‘That demonstrates the longevity of the vines and the stories they have to tell through their wines.’

Naude is also happy that Cinsault is again finding the fame it had a century ago. ‘We had these world-class wines made with Cinsault – a heritage wine; one of the oldest cultivars in South Africa – then just a few decades later we were using it to make cheap wines.

‘Today we can create something again with our old-vine Cinsault – light, summer, Mediterranean-style reds. We are the only country in the world that can capture that distinct rose petal and Turkish Delight character of Cinsault, along with its great ageing potential.’

Charlie Brain of Lubanzi Wines believes now is the perfect moment for Cinsault’s star to shine. ‘Stylistically, it suits the palates of modern, forward-thinking wine drinkers. Cinsault has got a bright future and, in time, will really come to be a variety that is synonymous with South African wine.’

Historic Cinsault

Stellenbosch’s Chateau Libertas is considered South Africa’s oldest dry red blend, first made in 1932 by American doctor William Charles Winshaw.

Lightly oaked and styled on European wines of the time, with about 11% or 12% alcohol, it would have had a large proportion of Cinsault in the blend – more than 30% in some cases (as did the historic wines of Zonnebloem and Lanzerac).

And the wines have incredible longevity: Greg Sherwood MW, Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Chair for South Africa, rated the 1957 a perfect 100 points when tasting it in 2018.

At another tasting in 2017 he tried a 1971 Oude Libertas Cinsault and a 1974 Stellenbosch Cinsault, both from Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery, rating each 93 points.

South African Cinsault: the facts

At 1,701ha, Cinsault is South Africa’s sixth most-planted red grape. So, more than Pinot Noir (1,198ha) but well behind Cabernet Sauvignon with over 10,000ha. It represents 1.8% of the total South African vineyard area, with an annual crush of 21,000 tons.

Of South Africa’s 3,693ha of old-vine vineyards (35 years old or more), there are about 130ha of Cinsault. Pinotage, with 139ha, is the only other red variety with more ancient vineyards. Some of the oldest Cinsault blocks include the Basson vineyard in Wellington, planted in 1900, and the Lötter vineyard in Franschhoek, planted in 1932.

(Source: SAWIS 2020)

Other top Cape Cinsaults

• AA Badenhorst, Ringmuur Cinsault, Swartland
• Alheit, Flotsam & Jetsam Stalwart Cinsault, Darling
• Blankbottle, Pseudonym, Darling
• Craven, Cinsault, Stellenbosch
• De Kleine Wijn Koop, Ou Treffer Cinsault, Stellenbosch
• Leeu Passant, Old Vines Basson Cinsault, Wellington
• Leeu Passant, Old Vines Lötter Cinsault, Franschhoek
• Lukas von Loggerenberg, Geronimo
• Natte Valleij, Cinsault, Simonsberg-Paarl
• Natte Valleij, Cinsault, Swartland
• Savage, Follow the Line
• Silwervis, Cinsault, Swartland
• The Sadie Family, Pofadder, Swartland
  

Cinsault: 26 South African wines to try

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Overextraction is a common problem in Rasteau this year, which is particularly regrettable since it’s avoidable. The result is a lot of very burly, unfriendly tannins.

Scroll down to see Matt’s top Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2019 tasting notes and scores

Some wines will come round in time – many I tasted were only part-way through barrel maturation after all, so will further soften before bottling.

But for those who’ve met the challenges of the vintage successfully, 2019 was a very good year. Julie Paolucci of Domaine la Luminaille is optimistic: she predicts ‘this vintage will age well thanks to its body and acidity.’

In Cairanne, it’s a very opulent vintage, with flowing, liqueur fruit flavours. They are only rarely jammy or raisined, but even the best wines have a warming potency. White wines, which can be picked earlier without having to wait for the same degree of phenolic ripeness as reds, are more consistent. They are ripe and expressive with purity of expression.

Naturally fresher terroirs – such as Vinsobres – are a good place to look for balanced wines this year. The rich, ripe fruit benefits from the edgier acidity and salinity that this terroir provides.

Quick links

Individual appellation analysis and top-scoring wines:

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise

Lirac & Tavel

Key producers in 2019

Domaine Alary

Domaine des Amadieu

Domaine Chaume-Arnaud

Domaine les Grands Bois

Domaine la Luminaille

Domaine Roche

Value picks

Domaine de Dionysos Cairanne ‘La Cigalette’ 2019

Domaine les Grands Bois Cairanne ‘Maximilien’ 2019

Domaine Brusset Rasteau ‘La Bastide’ 2019

Domaine la Luminaille Rasteau ‘Garance’ 2019

Tardieu-Laurent Rasteau ‘Vieilles Vignes’ 2019

Domaine Chaume-Arnaud Vinsobres 2019

Domaine Alary Cairanne blanc ‘Jean de Verde’ 2019

See Matt’s top Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2019 tasting notes and scores

See also

Rhône 2019 En Primeur: Full report plus top scoring winesNorthern Rhône 2019 report plus top scoring winesSouthern Rhône 2019 report plus top scoring wines

Climatic conditions on the west and east banks were broadly similar in 2019, and the Gard appellations display a similarly ripe, opulent style to its neighbours in the Vaucluse.

Scroll down to see Matt’s top Lirac & Tavel 2019 tasting notes and scores

Rodolphe des Pins of Château de Montfaucon says ‘it’s a great vintage – I was a bit surprised, I thought it would be more unbalanced.’

Winemakers with old vines who adapted their approach to the season made concentrated, elegant wines that will offer great value for money.

There are some very good whites and rosés in Lirac this year, plump yet fresh. Tavel producers I spoke to were also surprised at how successful the vintage was given the circumstances, though I would drink them young rather than be tempted to age them this year.

Quick links

Individual appellation analysis and top-scoring wines:

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres

Key producers in 2018

Château d’Aqueria

Domaine Coudoulis

Domaine la Lôyane

Château de Montfaucon

Les Vignobles Assemat

Value picks

Domaine Coudoulis Lirac rouge ‘Evidence’ 2019

Domaine la Lôyane Lirac rouge 2019

Château de Montfaucon Lirac rouge 2019

Château d’Aqueria Tavel 2019

Les Vignobles Assemat Lirac blanc 2019

Domaine Pelaquié Lirac blanc ‘Luc Pélaquié’ 2019

See Matt’s top Lirac & Tavel 2019 tasting notes and scores

See also

Rhône 2019 En Primeur: Full report plus top scoring winesNorthern Rhône 2019 report plus top scoring winesSouthern Rhône 2019 report plus top scoring wines

Southern Rhône 2019

Overall rating 4.5/5

A swelteringly hot, very dry year that was surprisingly successful, especially in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, both reds and whites. Elsewhere there are mixed results; some excellent wines, others with unbalanced alcohol or tough tannins.

Southern Rhône 2019 wine of the vintage: Le Vieux Donjon, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rhône, 2019 

So how hot was it, exactly? Well on 28th June 2019, the temperature in Gallargues-le-Montueux near Nîmes hit 45.9 ̊ C, a new record for France.

It was also exceptionally dry throughout the Southern Rhône, with barely any rainfall during the summer months.

Hot and sunny weather is to be welcomed of course – grapes need to ripen – but nobody would hope for conditions like this.

Scroll down to see Matt’s top Southern Rhône 2019 tasting notes and scores

Quick links

Individual appellation analysis and top-scoring wines: coming soon

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres

Lirac & Tavel

Inevitably, there are many unbalanced wines, with low acidity, excessive alcohol, and jammy or raisined flavours. But by no means all. There are also some delicious, rich, vivid wines that are well worth buying.

Weather conditions

Unusually, what made all the difference wasn’t what happened during the growing season, it was what happened before; in the words of Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme, ‘a vintage is not just a summer.’

Heavy rains during the previous autumn and winter replenished the water in the soil, giving the vines access to just enough moisture to sustain them during the brutal summer that followed. Old vines with deep root systems in water-retaining soils could make the most of this; young vines, or those on free-draining soils, fared less well.

There are other mitigating factors. For a start, there was none of the devastating downy mildew that wreaked havoc in 2018. Neither was there any serious coulure like in 2017, so yields were high, helping to temper the climatic extremes.

There was no problem with ripeness, and vineyards had a clean bill of health at harvest. With no rot or threat of rain winemakers could choose their moment to pick with precision. And the time of harvest was crucial; potential alcohol levels escalated wildly towards the end of the season. Grapes were small, with thick skins, making for concentrated wines with robust tannic loads.

Top performers

Châteauneuf-du-Pape has a preternatural ability to cope with climatic extremes, and it is undoubtedly the best performing appellation this year. The best wines are hugely powerful, with velvety tannins and great vitality.

Gigondas had another very good year, as did other fresh terroirs such as Vinsobres and the northern reaches of the Southern Rhône.

It’s a less exciting year for Vacqueyras; too many wines have thick, leathery tannins. Often this is down to overextraction – a common miscalculation this year throughout the region.

White wines often excel in cooler vintages such as 2014. But I was surprised at the quality of many of the whites this year, they have a surprising intensity for such a hot year.

Again, it’s Châteauneuf that leads the pack, with good value options in Vacqueyras, Cairanne and Lirac.

Apart from some select Châteauneufs, the whites should be drunk straight away, and enjoyed for their youthful vigour and exotic fruit. When it comes to the reds, it’s hard to generalise. Many will be at their best when young. But the top Châteauneuf reds will age for decades.

The 2019 vintage will always be remembered for its heat, but it’s not the whole story. As the years roll on, some wines will age quickly, but others will surprise and delight for many years to come.

See Matt’s top Southern Rhône 2019 tasting notes and scores

The following list comprises wines that scored 96 points and above. There are also 24 wines that scored 95 points and 31 that scored 94 points.

See also

Rhône 2019 En Primeur: Full report

Northern Rhône 2019 report plus top scoring wines

A new rosé named ‘Studio by Miraval’ has been created by the Provence château that remains jointly owned by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

‘Studio by Miraval’ rosé has been earmarked for a global launch on 5 March this year, according to a statement released by the estate.

Beyond a minimalist bottle label that has design cues reminiscent of the perfume industry, the new Provence rosé is a blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Rolle and lesser known grape variety Tibouren.

The launch of ‘Studio’ follows success for Miraval rosé, which made its debut in 2012.

It takes inspiration from a music recording studio installed on the Provence estate by previous owner, and jazz musician, Jacques Loussier. Several high-profile bands, including Pink Floyd and AC/DC, have recorded there, said a press statement.

No estimated price for the new wine was available at present, a spokesperson for Miraval told Decanter.com.

He confirmed that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were still owners of the estate. There has previously been speculation about future ownership following the Hollywood couple’s divorce proceedings.

Studio by Miraval, like the estate rosé, has been made in partnership with the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel, the Miraval spokesperson confirmed.

‘This new rosé will be the common thread linking a location, a legend, a legacy, and, above all, a love of art,’ said a statement, adding that the new wine was intended to evoke the spirit of the French Riviera.

In-depth: Jane Anson reports on a visit to Miraval in 2015

Regarded for decades as simply a useful blending grape, is hardy Cinsault finding favour again? Alistair Cooper MW feels its wines are deserving of a reappraisal…

It is often said that wine trends are cyclical, mirroring the fickle beast that is the fashion industry. Wine styles and grapes come and go, just as flares and beards just keep on coming back.

And if ever there were a grape that has experienced a wild swing in its fortunes over the past century, it’s Cinsault. Once widely planted, then much maligned and brutally grubbed up, this inherently hardy and tenacious grape has experienced a welcome mini-renaissance in recent years.

Scroll down for Alistair Cooper MW’s pick of the best Cinsault buys

This article appears in the September 2018 issue of Decanter magazine, on general sale from 1 August, but is available online exclusively to Premium members.

Historically Cinsault has played a pivotal, yet often understated role in the development of several leading wine industries. These include France, South Africa, Lebanon and, to a slightly lesser degree, Chile.

Intrinsically Cinsault is a drought-resistant grape, capable of tolerating extreme temperatures. Coupled with this it is a robust variety, largely disease resistant in warmer climates.

When you add to the mix its extraordinary ability to yield copiously, its attraction to wine-growers becomes clear – particularly given the time period in which its popularity peaked.

The French annexation of Algeria and Morocco in the 19th century saw Cinsault thrive in the blistering north African heat.Algerian wine flooded phylloxera-ravaged France to slake the Gallic thirst. In an era where quantity trumped quality, Cinsault also became a favourite in South Africa – where it was known as Hermitage, then as Cinsaut.By the 1970s, Cinsault was the most widely planted grape in South Africa – both as a workhorse grape and for distilling into brandy. Indirectly Cinsault also left a deep impression on the South African landscape in the form of Pinotage.A cross of Cinsault and Pinot Noir developed in 1925 by Professor Abraham Perold, its success as a variety is questionable, yet Cinsault’s DNA remains firmly ensconced in the Cape winelands.It’s fair to say that Cinsault’s role has largely been behind the scenes. It fulfils a vital yet unheralded part in the rosés of Provence and Tavel, and is even a permitted grape in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Thus far, it may sound as if Cinsault is a solid yet uninspiring variety with little chance of landing a starring role as a red monovarietal showstopper.

Yet there is a growing band of winemakers who are banging the Cinsault drum, and unequivocally believe in its potential. Mark Savage MW recalls maverick winemaker Daniel Domergue (of Clos Centeilles in the Minervois) quipping more than 20 years ago: ‘Making rosé wine with your Cinsault is like taking the goats to market in your Jaguar!’

All in the soil

The Itata region of central Chile is home to 650ha of Cinsault. Introduced officially in 1940 to bolster the colour of País and add to the yield, it has garnered considerable interest over recent years. ‘Cinsault is incredibly terroir-oriented,’ explains globally respected terroir guru Pedro Parra. ‘In a bad site, the wine is bad – much like Grenache and Carignan. But in Itata, the decomposed granite and quartz offer ideal conditions for Cinsault.’ Discussing Cinsault’s flavour profile in Itata, Parra states: ‘It tastes like a brother of Pinot Noir, delicate with beautiful, complex perfumed aromas, great minerality and also freshness. Somewhere between Pinot Noir, Gamay and Mencía.’

On the topic of site expression and terroir in Itata, Derek Mossman Knapp of Garage Wine Co explains: ‘Over four vintages we’ve worked with Cinsault planted in three different places, making a Single Ferment Series wine. The three elements all bring very different things indeed.’

Locally Cinsault is known as Cargadora (‘the loaded one’) and the vines are all dry-farmed bush vines, with the best sites located on the rolling hills – factors that all help to naturally reduce yields. Leo Erazo of Rogue Vine also stresses the importance of vine age to producing good Cinsault wines: ‘It is absolutely crucial for balance in the vines. Unirrigated and old vines offer the best ability to transmit terroir. Young, irrigated vines will show very little or no expression.’

For me, it is the minerality and texturally dense yet soft tannins found in Itata’s Cinsault that really shine through. Cinsault produced here tends to be medium-bodied with moderate acidity, showing both red and dark fruits along with a beautiful liqourice spiced element on the mid-palate.

Cinsault strongholds

FRANCE

Area: About 20,000ha (hard to confirm, but around the 8th most-planted red), in Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence and Corsica

Soils: Well suited to schist soils Flavour profile Generally used in light, red fruit-led rosé styles Other Thought to have originated in the Hérault

SOUTH AFRICA

Area: 1,850ha (the 6th most-planted red)

Soils: Slate, shale and decomposed granite

Flavour profile: Red fruits, notably raspberry and strawberry, floral; light/medium-bodied, light tannins Other Cinsault was the most widely planted red grape variety in South Africa until the 1980s

CHILE

Area: 750ha (11th most-planted red), almost all in Itata

Soils: Best on rolling hills, decomposed granite with quartz. Dry-farmed bush vines

Flavour profile: Both red and dark fruits, liquorice; medium-bodied, luxuriously soft and textured tannins; moderate acidity

Other: Introduced to the country officially in 1940 following the great earthquake of Chillán

Modern expression

Eben Sadie of The Sadie Family Wines is also convinced of Cinsault’s potential; this time in South Africa. ‘Cinsault is by far the grape that is best suited to the Cape,’ he says. ‘It has a great affinity and just loves the soil here.’ In 2009, he released South Africa’s first singlevineyard Cinsault: Pofadder. ‘This is a grape that expresses terroir incredibly – the only other similar grape is Pinot Noir.’

His vineyard on the Kasteelberg mountain in Swartland is composed of slate and granite, and the tension and vibrancy in the wine is remarkable. Sadie believes Cinsault fits perfectly into modern wine culture: ‘We live in a time where people don’t age wines and Cinsault is perfect for drinking early – but it can also age.’

South African wine expert Richard Kelley MW is less effusive: ‘As a standalone variety, Cinsault doesn’t have the intrinsic qualities to deliver anything particularly ageworthy or complex.’ However, in the context of blends, he is upbeat: ‘When one considers the greatest historical bottles from the early 1960s until the post-apartheid era, Cinsault plays a good part in many of them: Rustenberg Dry Reds, Rozendal and the wines made in the late-1960s at Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery. It still has a role to play in blends, where it can add freshness, acidity, minerality and fragrance.’

Stem sell

When it comes to winemaking practices with Cinsault, the use of both stems (whole-bunch fermentation) and oak are recurring themes. Alex Milner of Natte Valleij in Simonsberg, says: ‘I like to call Cinsault the “working man’s Pinot”. One needs to treat it with huge respect. I don’t believe it needs oak – perhaps the environment of a seasoned barrel, but lashings of oak is unsympathetic towards the wine, and to French forests!’

Milner focuses on four different terroirs (Simonsberg, Darling, Stellenbosch and Swartland) for his Cinsault Collective wines. A comparison highlights just how terroirdriven Cinsault can be – from soft-perfumed, raspberry fruit in Darling to textural, saline mulberry fruit in Stellenbosch.

On the use of stems in fermentation, Pedro Parra says: ‘Stems are a useful tool, depending on the vintage. I’m experimenting with between 10% and 50% stem inclusion.’ Milner has adopted an innovative approach: ‘We play around with the reintroduction of stalks that we allow to dessicate in the hot sun. We find this imparts an ordered and balanced structure to the wine.’ Some of the most expressive examples of Cinsault I’ve tasted have had a percentage of stems (mostly less than 50%), adding purity, silkiness and perfume to the wines, along with a firmness to the tannins.

Renewed approval

In Lebanon, Cinsault has been grown in the 1,000m-high Bekaa Valley since the mid-19th century. In particular, Cinsault makes up an important part of the blend in the celebrated Chateau Musar, and the late Serge Hochar once said: ‘If I could only have one grape variety in the Bekaa Valley, it would be Cinsault.’ In 2017, Domaine des Tourelles released its first single-vineyard Cinsault from 50-year-old vines, and winemaker Faouzi Issa is convinced of the single-varietal expression: ‘Our altitude is key – it gives the right balance and freshness in the wine. We can make very elegant expressions of Cinsault here.’ After tasting this wine, I would love to see more winemakers exploring single expressions of Cinsault in this unique terroir.

Cinsault’s fortunes have dramatically improved over the past decade, and rightly so. The once-neglected ugly duckling has blossomed, perhaps not into the prom queen, but into a striking fashionista. Clearly it is a grape with great ability to transmit and express terroir, a grape that – when handled correctly – can produce quite beautiful wines. The question may remain, can Cinsault ever produce truly great wines? When prominent industry figures such as Eben Sadie and Pedro Parra give their stamp of approval, it is a brave soul that’s willing to contradict them.

Old-vine Cinsault will, I hope, be given the respect it deserves, and continue to thrill and tantalise for many years to come – both in blends and in the leading role.

Cinsault: key features

Resistant to both drought and heat

Very high-yielding – so needs to be carefully managed in the vineyard

Large grapes, medium skin

Moderately compact bunches

Suited to dryland/ unirrigated bush vines

Reputedly oldest vineyard – Bechthold Vineyard in Lodi, California, planted in 1886

Cinsault synonyms around the world:

Australia: Black Prince

Catalonia: Sinsó

Chile: Cargadora

France: Oeillade

Italy: Ottavianello

South Africa: Cinsaut (historically known as Hermitage)

US: Black Malvoisie

See Alistair Cooper MW’s pick of the best Cinsault buys

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Decanter's Christelle Guibert attended the Musar masterclass at November's Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, tasting wines stretching back to 1974...

Wine has been made in Lebanon for more than 6,000 years, but in the modern era its wines were unheard of on the international wine scene – until the pioneering work of Serge Hochar of Chateau Musar.

Over the course of a winemaking career spanning more than fifty years, and undeterred by the backdrop of the 15 year Lebanese war (1975-1990), Serge produced a series of stellar wines, transforming the profile of the country in the process.

Scroll down to see Christelle’s tasting notes from the masterclass

Musar’s story begins in the 1920s, when Serge’s father, Gaston, left for France to study medicine and in the process discovered a real love for wine.

Upon his return in 1930 he founded Chateau Musar. When his son Serge took over in 1959, winemaking remained the same – a non-interventionist ‘natural’ style, vinified with wild yeasts and using minimal sulphur. All now very fashionable, but back then natural wine was unheard of.

The concept of blending

When Gaston Hochar started out he had no red grapes, as phylloxera had ravaged them all, and the only grapes left were white.

However, a friendship with Major Ronald Barton of châteaux Leoville and Langoa-Barton, in Bordeaux, inspired him to plant Cabernet Sauvignon.

As Serge’s son, Marc, admitted, ‘Cabernet has a masculine structure; we use Cabernet but we want to hide it. When it is young, it has too much tannin and it stays on the fruit for a very long time, so you have to wait many years before it can develop. But you need Cabernet for the ageing ability’.

With 300 hours of sunshine a year, he also needed a grape resistant to heat, and so Gaston introduced Cinsault, which brings a floral element to the blend.

It is these two grape varieties that form the base of all the red wines produced here.

Continue reading below

Chateau Musar wines at the masterclass:

Divisive

Chateau Musar makes characterful and distinctive wines, whose style can divide opinions. The wines are made naturally, often with high levels of volatile acidity and/or brett, which can be seen as an imperfection for some or as a living element for others.

They can differ immensely from vintage to vintage too: some years, such as 1999, can bring to mind Bordeaux, while other years, such as 1974, are more Burgundian. Yet others are reminiscent of northern Rhône.

During the 1960s, Serge kept back 50% of the production; he already knew they had the potential to age incredibly well, and today Chateau Musar has stock of well over one million bottles in their cellars in Ghazir.

These are legendary wines, born in a country which, for Marc, ‘is not part of the new world or the old world, but part of the ancient world’.

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Decanter’s tasting director, Christelle Guibert, gives her ratings and tasting notes for nine Château de Beaucastel wines, including five vintages of the rare Hommage à Jacques Perrin at Decanter’s Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter.

I last saw François Perrin four years ago in southern Rhône, when, along with his brother Jean-Pierre, they were jointed awarded Decanter Man of the Year for their outstanding contributions to the wine world.

That was until we met again at the Decanter Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter for a masterclass showcasing several vintages of Château de Beaucastel and the very rare Hommage à Jacques Perrin.

Article continues below the wine reviews

Château de Beaucastel wines tasted and rated

Stockists for US and UK provided where available. Stockist search aided by Wine-Searcher. This list also includes Château de Beaucastel 2015 tasted by John Livingstone-Learmonth in autumn 2016.

The blends

• Château de Beaucastel blend is mainly Grenache and Mourvèdre – 30% each – with 10% Syrah, 5% Cinsault and small amounts of several others. 
• Hommage is majority Mourvèdre, 60%, plus Grenache, Syrah and Cournoise. Only 5,000 bottles are made annually.

Beaucastel history

Château de Beaucastel traces its existence back to 1549, when Pierre de Beaucastel bought a barn with a plot of land.

When phylloxera struck at the end of the nineteenth century, decimating the planted vines, the owner decided not to replant the vineyards, instead selling the propriety to Pierre Traminer in 1909.

He replanted the vines and passed them on to his son-in-law, Pierre Perrin, and in-turn to Pierre’s son, Jacques Perrin.

The fourth generation of Perrins, François and Jean-Pierre, have been at the helm since 1978 and the fifth generation of Marc, Pierre, Thomas, Cécile, Charles, Mathieu and Thomas, are also involved.

The vineyards and the blend

Château de Beaucastel covers 130 hectares, of which 100 hectares are planted with vines, including 70% within the Châteauneuf-du-Pape boundary and the remainder classified as Côtes-du-Rhône.

The land has been cultivated organically since 1950 and biodynamically since 1974.

All 13 grape varieties allowed in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation are planted, with Grenache and Mourvedre making up the majority.

‘Châteauneuf-du-Pape gets its complexity from blending the different grape varieties,’ said François Perrin. ‘We could do single varietal [wines] but we will not achieve the same level.’

He believes that each grape brings something particular to the wine.

• Grenache accounts for around 30% of the blend and gives the richness, the ripe fruit and the alcohol.
• Mourvèdre, also usually 30% of the final wine, provides the tannic backbone.
• Syrah represents 10% of the blend and adds colour and violet characters
• Cinsault, at 5%, brings freshness and elegance.

The others, Cournoise, Vaccarese, Terret Noir, Muscardin, Clairette, Picpoul, Picardin, Bourboulenc and Roussanne, contribute to the complexity and spiciness of the final blend, he said.

Each grape variety is picked and vinified separately, starting with Syrah and finishing with Mourvèdre.

They are blended after malolactic fermentation and aged in large oak barrels for 12 months. For François, ‘oak is like make-up, you just need a little’.

Hommage à Jacques Perrin: About the wine

As the name suggests, Hommage à Jacques Perrin is named in honour of the brothers’ father, who passed away in 2009.

‘My father had great vision and, while everybody else was focusing on Grenache, he decided to plant Mourvedre,’ François recalled poignantly.

Subsequently Hommage has a minimum 60% of Mourvèdre in the blend, alongside Grenache, Syrah and 10% of Cournoise, another late ripening grape.

It was my first experience at tasting ‘Hommage à Jacques Perrin’, and this is truly an exceptional vin de garde.

‘This is a wine to be kept for your retirement,’ François noted, wryly surveying the fresh faced audience at this masterclass.

‘When you own a vineyard, you don’t do things for yourself but for the next generation. To achieve great things, you need to push yourself,’ he said.

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The discreet carving of Miraval onto a stone plaque and a security guard standing alongside a low metal gate are all that mark the entrance to what has become one of the most famous and fought over rosé wine producers in the world - helped along by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, of course.

If known at all three years earlier, Miraval was perhaps more renowned for its recording studio that attracted artists from UB40 to The Cure and Pink Floyd, rather than its Provence rosé wines.

It’s easy to ascribe the success of Miraval to the two famous names attached to it. They don’t come much bigger that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and their celebrity is clearly not lost on the locals. I’m honestly not making this up when I tell you that the guard asked me to repeat my name at the front gate. ‘Aniston?’. ‘No, Anson.’

He ushered me on, instantly professional, and I wondered if I’d misheard. Or if was simply more proof that there is no one, any where, who doesn’t know their back story. Driving on up the narrow and extremely long drive, it was easy to see that among the many attractions of the estate is its privacy. With 700 hectares set across two private valleys, we pass rows of olive trees, dense oak forests, opens stretches of lavender, clutches of rosemary and thyme, a good-sized lake with canoes parked up alongside, and a series of hillside terraces; some that seem to date back for centuries and others that are freshly dug, with men working on assembling traditional dry-stone walls. There are several ‘No photography’ signs but they seem unnecessary here, so remote and hidden are the valleys, despite being set just a few kilometers from the pretty market town of Brignoles.

It was the remoteness, and the wild splendor of this place, that attracted the Perrin family to Miraval also, as co-investors and producers of the wine.

I’m here with Marc Perrin, and after parking up we head over to a row of two- and four-seater quad bikes and climb onboard one particularly low-slung, sturdy example. I am warned that things are about to get very dusty. Black was maybe not the best choice of outfit, as bits of dolomitic limestone, clay, and slate quickly start to cling, and I am soon a walking advert for the terroir of Miraval.

‘In many ways the challenges here remind me of when we first arrived at Tablas Creek in California at the end of the 1980s,’ Perrin is telling me as we head out to the furthest part of the second valley, climbing up from 350 meters to 520 meters through dense scrubland. ‘There we had to create the vineyard from scratch, choose the best sites, based on our belief in the quality of the soils and what they would bring. And there also a partnership (with the Haas family) allowed for long-term investment’.

The same belief in the long-term is being displayed here. There were vines planted at Miraval (it’s likely some vines have grown in this spot since Roman times, and a Roman road lies underneath parts of the track we are taking) when the Jolie-Pitt-Perrin team arrived, but many were in the lowest part of the valley, on land easiest to plant. Since 2012, the Burgundy-based microbiologists Claude and Lydia Bourguignon – who also worked with the Perrins at Beaucastel – have been sampling soils across the entire 700 hectares.

We stop at one of them, where a natural cirque is already evident beneath steep hillside covered with wild rosemary, thyme and unforgiving brambles. As with much of Miraval, a ring of oak trees sits on the horizon. This is where they plan to plant more white grapes over the next few years, notably rolle. A little further down the valley, barely accessible even on our quad, is a narrow ravine that will one day contain syrah and pinot noir grapes.

‘We are at the most northerly part of Provence here,’ says Perrin, his enthusiasm clear in his broad smile as we pick our way past boulders and trees stumps, abandoning the vehicle to get a closer look at the planting sites. ‘With the altitude and the shape of the valley there is always a cooling breeze, and I am convinced there are some excellent soils for varieties that we normally associate with the northern Rhone, even Burgundy. There is so much possibility here – it’s impossible to find unexplored terroir like this in the Rhone any more’.

For now, Miraval produces only 20,000 bottles of white, made from rolle and grenache blanc, and half that of red. The new plantings will lie outside the AOC Côtes de Provence or AOC Coteaux Varois that are used for the estate wines, so will be bottled as Vins de France (leading to the idea of Super Provence wines that follow the Super Tuscans in style, although all Cabernet Sauvignon was recently pulled up as up the land was deemed unsuitable). ‘We are looking at terroir not names’ Perrin says firmly.

These are long term plans, realisable slowly over the next five to ten years, but for now the dominant style is rosé – today 500,000 bottles against 200,000 back in 2012. And it is here that Miraval is in the front line of the war that seems to be brewing between traditional Provence styles and the new (that label again) Super Rosés. Or more simply Posh Pinks.

It was inevitable, perhaps. Sacha Lichine at Château D’Esclans saw it first – or rather saw how much further the potential that had already been grasped by Domaines Ott’s Clos Mireille, Domaine de Romauresq, Chateau Sainte Roseline and the rest of the 23 cru classés de Provence could go.

It’s hard to believe that the four wines from D’Esclans – with top cuvée Garrus clocking in at £72 in the UK market – were launched with the 2006 vintage, so close to ten years ago now. And inevitably when the potential was grasped, others followed.

‘The more expensive they go, the more whispering they become,’ said one traditional-style producer, bemoaning the ultra-pale, light extraction touch seen in – I can only assume his choice of words was deliberate – Whispering Angel from Lichine and others like it.

Another complaint seems to be the volume produced, and specifically the sourcing of grapes from outside the vineyards themselves. Miraval now works with around ten outside producers, not all of whom are organic as they are at the estate itself (although they are in conversion Perrin tells me), and Whispering Angel similarly sources non-estate grapes for its one million bottles.

The third charge leveled at Miraval and others like it – that they are made in the winery, not the vineyard. Here Perrin is unapologetic. He ensures the cinsault, grenache and rolle varieties undergo a gentle direct press to release the juice, while the ‘saignée’ method is used for syrah – so running off the juice after a longer skin contact – but only on grapes picked earlier than for the red wine, specifically for rosé. The wine is then almost entirely vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to emphasise pure fruit flavours, with just a small amount (5%) in barrel with lees stirring to encourage a touch more depth and roundness in the mouthfeel.

‘Making rosé is like being a patisserie chef,’ says Perrin, ‘everything has to be measured out perfectly from beginning to end, it all has to be extremely precise, much more than for a red or even a white. The results depend on terroir and technique. The aim is for minerality and subtle intensity of flavours, and paying careful attention in the winery is non-negotiable’.

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Chateau de Pibarnon is to release a limited edition rosé cuvée aimed at year-round drinking, reflecting a wider trend across Provence to produce upscale rosé wines aimed at a traditional red and white wine audience.

The rosé will be 100% Mouvèdre, made from direct press, aged in a mix of large oak casks and clay amphorae for around three months longer than the usual estate rosé – which is 65% Mourvèdre, 35% Cinsault, and a mix of direct press with 20% Saignée.

All rosés from Chateau Pibarnon, which is owned by Eric de Saint Victor, are entirely hand-picked into small crates.

‘The idea is to do a rosé for autumn and winter, a more gourmet structured year-round rosé’, Saint Victor told decanter.com.

‘Twenty years ago, rosé was sold in August, so given a longer time to gain in structure and weight. Today the trend in Provence is towards getting the new vintage to sale as early as possible, almost as a primeur wine, and we are looking to counter this movement. Mourvèdre always take longer to reveal itself than other grapes, and lends itself to structure and to being paired with food’.

The new wine will be released in September, and the name is yet to be decided.

The production of the classic Pibarnon rosé is 75,000 bottles, while the new cuvée will be 3,000 bottles for the first vintage.

Recent years have seen increasing number of often highly-priced rosés creating a new category that continues to expand.

Chateau Miraval from the Perrin-Jolie-Pitt partnership now includes grapes sourced from outside the domaine to respond to the demand for its wine, while the Roederer group has recently purchased two addition chateaux within its Domaines Ott subsidiary; Domaine de l’Hermitage in Bandol and Chateau la Moutète in AOC Côtes de Provence.

The Sacha Lichine-owned Chateau D’Esclans in Côtes de Provence has also rebranded its estate wine Rock Angel from the 2014 vintage to capitalise on the huge success of its Whispering Angel entry-level cuvée.

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Warm, humming and perfumed summer-day aromas showing the combined sweetness of Cinsault and Grenache. Vivid, elegant, lively, spicy palate which holds a big armful of soft red fruits, hints of earth and a touch of orange zest, all delivering a gratifying but forceful finish (13.5%).

Stockist: UK – £13.95 The Wine Society, US – $19.98 Wine Exchange*

One of the most venerable estates in Provence’s Bandol appellation, Château Salettes produces a benchmark rosé, given extra depth and character by the estate’s sun-kissed Mourvèdre vines.

With only two wines vying for this International Trophy, the judges had to choose between stylistically opposite ends of the rosé spectrum. This pale, precise and floral example won the day over a richer bottling from northern Greece.

Built in the 17th century and still owned by the Ricard-Boyer family, Château Salettes sits between Toulon and Marseilles, close to the village of La Cadière d’Azur. The sloping vineyard has a great sea view of the nearby Mediterranean, while the vines soak up the sunshine – Bandol gets roughly 3,000 hours of sun a year, according to joint manager Alexandre Le Corguillé.

This rosé blends Mourvèdre – the variety takes up roughly half of the château’s vineyards – with Cinsault and Grenache, adding an extra dimension to the trademark delicacy and food-friendly qualities of Provençal rosés.

Le Corguillé, a graduate of Montpellier winemaking school, has also worked in Marlborough in New Zealand and at Château La Gordonne in nearby Pierrefeu-du-Var. Since arriving at Salettes in 2011, he has tried to evolve the style of the wines and started working the vineyards using organic and biodynamic methods, as well as using indigenous yeasts in the winemaking. Salettes is beginning its organic certification this year.

Alexandre Le Corguillé, winemaker

Tasted against

Biblia Chora, Pangeon, Macedonia, Greece 2014.

The 17th-century Château Salettes in Bandol

*US stockist information from Wine-Searcher.com

Regional body InterRhone, which is the professional body that promotes AOC Rhone wines, recently held its annual seminar and tasting in London. Here are my top six wines from those present.

The Rhone wines success story continues, and it remains comfortably the second largest AOC French wine region in the UK.

To support the region’s growth, producers plan to hold tastings in conjunction with over 100 independent retailers around the UK from September, so keep an eye out if you’re in the country. Here are the six best wines from the annual InterRhone tasting.

M. Chapoutier, Les Granilites, St Joseph, Rhone, 2012

Pure Marsanne. Very attractive nose of mango and hazelnut, with some evident oak but it’s not overdone. Perfumed like a quince. Full-bodied and silky smooth, the acid is fairly low but it has a persistent, mouthwatering mineral finish. Firm, full-flavoured, generous but nicely tailored. A generous and fruit-packed example of white St Joseph. Alcohol: 13% abv

Score: 92 /100

Drinking Window: 2015 to 2018

Price: £15.83

Stockist (UK): Bordeaux Index

Jean-Luc Colombo, Terres Brulées, Cornas, Rhone, 2010

Pure Syrah. At five years of age this is relaxed and open now, with an agreeably mature, harmonious nose of liquorice, woody herbs, hung game and stewed blackberries. Full-bodied, powerful, rich in fruit and flavour. Robust textured tannins still, with that characteristic Cornas untamed streak. Burly. Lots to sink your teeth into.

Alcohol: 13.5%

Score: 91 /100

Drinking Window: 2015 to 2020

Price: £33.12 – £34.99

Stockist (UK): Excel Wines, Waitrose Cellar

M.Chapoutier, Les Meysonniers, Crozes Hermitage, Rhone, 2012

Pure Syrah. Fresh, detailed, and vibrant nose of black pepper and dark berry fruit that could only be from Crozes. Medium-bodied, good defining acid line and vivid fruit. Very drinkable, and a joy to inhale. So often a reliable pick from the sprawling Chapoutier range and the 2012 is no exception.

Alcohol: 13%

Score: 90 /100

Drinking Window: 2015 to 2017

Price: £13.01 – £16.50

Stockist (UK): thedrinkshop.com, Tanners

Boutinot, La Côte Sauvage, Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne, Rhone, 2011

Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Mourvèdre. Juicy harmonious nose of strawberry and raspberry fruit alongside dried herbs; also starting to take on some forest floor notes with age. Full-bodied, lush in texture. The alcohol is slightly noticeable, but it doesn’t detract from what is otherwise a succulent and thoroughly enjoyable wine.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Score: 89 /100

Drinking Window: 2015 to 2016

Price: £12 – £14.99

Stockist (UK): D&D Wine, Oxford Wine Company

Delas, Grigan-les-Adhémar, Rhone, 2013

Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault. Expressive blackberry fruit, a touch of liquorice. Dark and brooding, the Syrah makes its presence felt. Intense yet fresh, with an abundance of ripe tannin and fruity acids. Lots of wine for the money.

Alcohol: 13.5%

Score: 88 /100

Drinking Window: 2015 to 2016

Price: £6.95 – £9.25

Stockist (UK): The Wines Society, All About Wine

Gabriel Meffre, Sainte-Baume, Lirac, Rhone, 2013

Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Carignan. Pure black fruit on the nose, very straight and direct. Good acidity and intensity, with firm, textured tannic base. A classic, fresh expression of Lirac.

Alcohol: 13.5%

Score: 88 /100

Drinking Window: 2015 to 2017

Price: £9.99

Stockist (UK): Waitrose Cellar

Written by Matt Walls

Just as there is no wine quite like Château Musar, so there will never be another winemaker like Serge Hochar. Let me try to explain why.

I met him at length twice in the Lebanon, once in early April 1993, and again in August 2003. I also interviewed him in May 2003 in London, and saw him for what was to prove the final time in November 2014 in Riebeek Kasteel in South Africa, where he was the guest of honour at the 2014 Swartland Revolution. It was his father Gaston, in fact, who began Lebanon’s wine renaissance, but it was Serge who gave it international stature. His courage in continuing to make wine through the traumas of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war was justly celebrated. Much of the detail of Serge’s career was resumed in an article I wrote for Decanter magazine in December 2003, which you can find here (as well as in two articles for the now-defunct WINE magazine in August/September 1993 and October 1993).

If you sat down to talk and to taste with Serge, you began a leisurely journey to an uncertain destination. ‘Interviewing him’ in any conventional sense, in fact, was impossible, since he would soon be turning your questions upside down or back to front, contesting your presumptions, or taking the conversation off in some intriguingly lateral direction. The playful and the profound was mingled seamlessly in his conversation, as they are in life itself. He was a master of both paradox and metaphor. “Is it an answer?” he would conclude, after a long and colourful conversational detour. You were never quite sure, but always a little wiser.

I always thought of him as the wine world’s heir to the great French Levantine tradition: a rich cultural mix born in the cosmopolitan and always-tolerant cities of Beirut, Alexandria and Smyrna. Here the ideas and languages of Western Europe mingled creatively with those of the Ottoman Near East; here dialogue was always preferred to conflict; here the Phoenicians were not forgotten, and the wisdom of centuries had decreed trade a consensual ideal to trump the seemingly irreconcilable ideals of religion and great-power politics. Here, simple sensual delight could open the doors to metaphysical speculation, and vice versa: Serge was the only winemaker ever to tell me that wine was “an answer to the mystery of existence”, that wine had helped him accept life at a time of existential conflict, that wine was “not human life, but it is real life all the same”. When you sat down with Serge, no subject was off-limits – but every concept, you would find, needed redefinition.

This sinuous, ceaselessly questioning, imaginatively charged approach tended to grate on those brought up in the tradition of anglo-saxon scientific pragmatism, just as Musar’s own wines were often considered beyond the pale by those (pragmatic, anglo-saxon) tasters obsessed with technical rectitude. Serge was, in a way, the ultimate non-interventionist: making zero-sulphur wines in 1959 and 1961, and never adding anything other than sulphur; minimising oak; trusting his raw materials even when the chaos of war had done everything it could to destroy them; and constantly listening to what he felt his wines were telling him, constantly allowing them more time, more expressive latitude, more freedom to unravel as they would.

It took him, he said, 18 years to find the ‘right’ blend for Musar, a counter-intuitive mixture of Cabernet with Carignan and Cinsault; he claimed that the ideal age to drink Musar was around its 30th birthday, even if every customary indicator is telling you to drink the wine earlier. “As the wine ages,” he said in South Africa, “it becomes younger and bigger. Why? I have no clue. This year I made my 56th vintage,” he continued. “And I discovered that – it’s not enough. I would need 2,000 years to fully understand. Wine teaches you the philosophy of time, the philosophy of slowness.”

If you have never drunk Musar’s red wine, expect nothing but be open to everything, and then you will love it and revel in it as hundreds of thousands of us have over the last half-century. If I had to pick out three qualities, though, then I would hail its ripeness and its fragrance, both testament to the aptitude of the Bekaa valley for viticulture and to the ‘Bybline’ historicity of fine-winemaking here; and I would hail its glorious drinkability, a legacy of that ripeness, that terroir, and Serge’s intuitive and non-interventionist instincts. It’s not a wine for geeks.

Now he’s gone, though, what of the future? One of Serge’s absolute precepts was loyalty and constancy; in this sense, he was the most un-American employer there has ever been. In 2003, I asked if the assistant winemaker I had met in 1993, Tariq Sakr, was still at Musar. “Yes, of course,” Serge replied. “Somebody who works with me has to continue to work with me. The value of time is so important. Whenever you lose someone, you lose a lot. If I spend two hours with you, it is already capital. If I am going to lose this, it’s stupid.” So everyone who has ever touched anything Musar – family, employees, agents around the world, overseas staff – is still loyally there, and the culture lies snugly inside the egg of Serge’s legacy. I am sure Musar could continue to be Serge’s Musar for all of our lifetimes, and possibly beyond.

I hope, though, that it changes — as those who have been nurtured on it see fit to change it. Perhaps there would be a way for the white wines (which Serge always claimed were his ‘real’ red wines, and which even he had to admit were ‘difficult’) to become a little more intelligible to the uninitiated. Wines which are going to be sold at full and even luxury levels of maturity need impeccable storage, which was sometimes hard to create in Lebanon. There is no wine on earth which cannot benefit from the advances in fruit handling and fruit sorting pioneered in Bordeaux over the last decade. Maybe even the blend will need to change with time; Serge ruefully reflected that last year was the first ever when it was not possible to ski in the Lebanon, and he knew that he had to add climate change to the long list of challenges he faced.

What, too, of Lebanon itself? Having come through the agony of its own civil war, and having endured the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and its after-shocks, Lebanon now finds itself with yet another existential challenge, this time from the Syrian civil war to its north and east. This tiny country of 4.3 million people is already hosting 1.1 million registered refugees from Syria, with another half-million unregistered; should these prove long-term visitors, they will permanently change the fragile balance of Lebanon’s complex demographics. When I first met Serge, shortly after the end of the civil war, he told me that “definitely it will all happen again; it has to.” When asked about the Syrian refugees when he was in South Africa, Serge replied “Lebanon has always been a country of refugees. I came to Lebanon only 900 years ago.”

“Religion is the key problem,” he told me back in 2003. “For me, my religion is wine. Because wine is a reflection of nature, and a gift of God. I am a Maronite Christian, but it’s not there that the core of my humanity lies. It lies in accepting the other, in tolerance, which is the only solution for humanity. That is one of the lessons which wine can teach. But here I don’t see a solution. I am not optimistic, nor pessimistic, but realistic. We have the luck in Lebanon to be a weak country, so we are the slave of the situation. That is our luck, our fate. It has been the fate of Lebanon since the very early stages of humanity. And it is this which makes Lebanon indestructible, the phoenix.”

Bustling with vineyards, heritage architecture, art and plenty of opportunities for outdoor dining, Angela Lloyd gives the low-down on why this region really is a destination for all seasons. Read her Stellenbosch travel guide.

Towering mountains linked to a chain of commanding hills; both guard an amphitheatre of undulating, vineyard-covered foothills and valleys, all leading to a vivid green-blue sea. Such is the dramatic beauty of the Stellenbosch winelands, even locals never tire of it, let alone the first-time visitor. But Stellenbosch is about much more than jaw-dropping vistas – it’s a region for all seasons, all wine styles and more besides. It’s a region that can be traversed within an hour, though incurious indeed would be the traveller who would not want to dally and explore all it has to offer.The original settlement on the banks of the Eerste river (First river) was founded by then Governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel in 1679. Vineyards were planted shortly after that, making Stellenbosch the second-oldest wine region in South Africa after Constantia.

Quick links:

• My perfect day in Stellenbosch
• Stellenbosch: where to stay, eat, shop and relax

Culture and wine

Nowadays, Stellenbosch is a bustling university town, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town. Besides shops and restaurants aplenty, Cape Dutch national heritage houses (particularly in oaked- lined Dorp Street) are worth leisurely admiration.Those who love the arts are well catered for. Several galleries house contemporary and historic art, and several wine farms have exhibitions, too. If your interest extends to see how it’s done, visits to well-known local sculptor Dylan Lewis’ studio can be arranged. His works may be found in gardens of wine farms such as Delaire Graff.

For music enthusiasts, both classical and jazz concerts are staged throughout the year at Endler Hall. In summer, the outdoor Oude Libertas amphitheatre offers a programme of varying music genres, while in neighbouring township Kayamandi, AmaZink, a pulsating musical and dining experience, is not to be missed.

But wine is the main story here. The vineyards, fanning out from the town, are home to the greatest number of wineries of any area, ­currently about 160, featuring both large and small operations. The former includes the country’s largest wine and spirits producer, Distell (distell.co.za) behind such wine brands as Nederberg, Pongracz, Stellenzicht and Lomond.

Making a choice from this daunting figure is eased by the Stellenbosch wine tourism body’s informative booklet and internet guide (wineroute.co.za), where member wineries have been divided into five sub-routes to make organising cellar door visits simpler. This is all a far cry from 1971, when the Cape’s first wine route was founded in Stellenbosch with just a handful of members.

Winery architecture here is as diverse as the wines – from the whitewashed low walls and traditional gabled manor house at Rustenberg (rustenberg.co.za) to the strikingly modern cellar at Tokara (tokara.com). Both wineries produce a typical, quality range of white and red wines, including the area’s signature variety, Cabernet Sauvignon.

Grape varieties galore

If Cabernet is acknowledged as king, home-bred Pinotage (often maligned outside South Africa) has some of its most ardent fans in Stellenbosch, with Beyers Truter leading the pack. At his Beyerskloof wine farm (beyerskloof.co.za) the grape’s versatility is demonstrated in everything from rosé to a vintage Port-style, the latter with some Touriga.

Pinotage is also indelibly linked to Truter’s previous cellar at Kanonkop (kanonkop.co.za), where fruit from a venerable 50-year-old vineyard goes into the sumptuous Black Label Pinotage.

More old-vine concentration comes with Chenin Blanc from Stellenrust (stellenrust.co.za), also from vines older than 50 years, as well as bush-vine Cinsault – an ancient Cape variety enjoying renewed interest across the country; here Tertius Boshoff gives it the care it deserves.

But it is Chenin Blanc that still holds sway as the Cape’s most planted variety. Although much remains destined for brandy, an increasing number of winemakers have shaken up the variety’s former image as a cheap and cheerful glugger and are producing wonderfully complex, concentrated and ageworthy wines. Look for some excellent Chenin- led white blends too. Ken Forrester, fondly known as Mr Chenin (kenforresterwines.com) has done much to generate this newfound interest.

A popular way to discover more about the region’s gastronomic delights, wine and food pairings are a favourite at many wineries. Try wine and chocolate matching at Waterford (waterfordestate.co.za) or pairing wine with pizzas cooked in the wood- fired oven at Mulderbosch (mulderbosch.co.za).

Stellenbosch and its numerous wineries might cover a relatively small area, but the various aspects, altitudes, soils and proximity to the sea with its cooling effects, allow for many varieties to be grown successfully beyond Chenin, Cabernet and Pinotage. At Hartenberg (hartenbergestate.com), Carl Schultz produces two Rieslings as well as five individual Shirazes.

The varietal spread has also been encouraged by foreign investors who have bought and developed farms here. Giulio Bertrand planted his favourite native Italian varieties, Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, on his Morgenster estate (morgenster.co.za), as well as olive trees too – don’t miss his award- winning extra virgin oil. And long-time Italian expat Giorgio dalla Cia and son George (dallacia.com) distil their Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot into grappa-style spirits.

Summer and Autumn (between November and April) are the warmest, driest times to visit, with harvest a bonus, but winter and spring (May to October) also have their attractions. There are lots of sunny days between the rain to enjoy hiking, mountain biking, golf and visiting a few more of those 160 wine farms at this quieter time of year known as the Green Season. And if it does rain, there’s still all the shops and eateries that Stellenbosch town has to offer.

At the end of your trip, you’ll realise that one visit to this beautiful region is never enough.

How to get there

Direct flights via British Airways and Virgin Atlantic take about 11.5 hours to Cape Town International Airport. Stellenbosch is a 35km drive away.

Written by Angela Lloyd

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Bustling with vineyards, heritage architecture, art and plenty of opportunities for outdoor dining, Angela Lloyd gives the low-down on why this region really is a destination for all seasons. Read her Stellenbosch travel guide.

A perfect day in Stellenbosch

Morning

Start the day with breakfast and an inspirational view at The Bakery on Jordan Wine Estate (jordanwines.com). Stop by the tasting room to try Gary and Kathy Jordan’s fine range of wines. At neighbouring DeMorgenzon (demorgenzon.co.za), the beautiful gardens and baroque music played in the vineyards are as much attractions as the wines. Take the 10-minute drive to Spier (spier.co.za), where local crafts and a wildlife outreach programme are among the features at this multi-faceted estate.

Lunch

You can remain at Spier for lunch and enjoy a pre-booked picnic on the lawns by the dam or river, tucking into organic, home-grown produce and a bottle of wine. Or opt for a bistro-style lunch in Stellenbosch at Wild Peacock (wildpeacock.co.za) (pictured above). There’s a wide array of delicacies in the food emporium, as well as plenty of tempting dishes made from local and imported ingredients. A wide selection of wines are all available by the glass.

Afternoon

Park your car behind Wild Peacock and take a five-minute walk to Stellenbosch 360 Information Bureau ( stellenbosch.travel) where registered guide Sandra Krige can take you on a 90-minute walking tour – an exceptional opportunity to hear about the 300 year-plus history and people of this beautiful town.

Evening & overnight

It’s about a 30-minute drive to your overnight lodgings at The Country Guesthouse (thecountryguesthouse.co.za), a gracious old Cape house set in lush gardens, with views of Table Mountain from one side, vineyards the other. Make your choice from cottages or family suites. The same owners run 96 Winery Road restaurant (96wineryroad.co.za), a favourite with locals, where Natasha Hughes’ country cooking is geared towards South African dishes and the wine list is acknowledged as one of the best in the region.

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Bustling with vineyards, heritage architecture, art and plenty of opportunities for outdoor dining, Angela Lloyd gives the low-down on why this region really is a destination for all seasons. Read her Stellenbosch travel guide.

Stellenbosch: Where to stay, eat, shop and relax

Hotels

Coopmanhuijs Boutique Hotel & Spa

The beautifully restored Coopmanhuijs, a national monument, dates from the early 18th century with further additions in the late 19th century. The ambience takes you back in time – even the lift travels at a genteel pace– while the rooms with their modern comforts have a Victorian feel. Although situated in the middle of town, surrounded by shops and cafes, a central courtyard with swimming pool provides a quiet retreat. coopmanhuijs.co.za

L’Avenir Country Lodge

Surrounded by vineyards, this well-appointed, 11-room B&B is located on a working wine farm in the foothills of the Simonsberg, 5km from Stellenbosch. Guests may wander through the vineyards, play boules, take a cellar tour and a wine tasting or laze by the outdoor swimming pool. lavenir-lodge.com

Delaire Graff Estate

No expense is spared at this hilltop winery with its 10 luxury lodges, all enjoying sweeping views across Stellenbosch to Table Mountain. Contemporary art, sculpture, a Laurence Graff Diamond store and a boutique impress, as do chef Christiaan Campbell’s dishes at both the farm’s restaurants. delaire.co.za

Majeka House

A stylish, owner-managed small hotel in an off-the-main road position just outside Stellenbosch. Coolly modern with touches of the traditional and the ubiquitous view of vineyards and mountains, it offers a spa, swimming pool and 16-seater boardroom for guests’ meetings. Chef Tanja Kruger brings visual as well as flavour appeal to her French-influenced dishes; the comprehensive wine list is overseen by a trained sommelier. majekahouse.co.za

Restaurants

Camphors

Named for the majestic 300 -year-old camphor trees in the spacious gardens of Vergelegen’s winery, the restaurant is modern yet relaxing in its black and white theme. Both chef PJ Vadas’ dishes and winemaker André van Rensburg’s wines offer a much-acclaimed modern take on the classics. vergelegen.co.za

The Restaurant at Waterkloof

Difficult to decide which is the more spectacular here – the vistas of sea and mountains from the glass promontory, or French chef Grégory Czarnecki’s seasonal menu, focusing on local ingredients. His eco-conscious approach echoes the farm’s biodynamic viticultural practices. waterkloofwines.co.za

Joostenberg Bistro

Family-owned, in a casual and child-friendly setting. Enjoy the terrace and green lawns in summer, a blazing fire inside in winter. French chef and family member Christophe de Hosse prepares traditional bistro-style dishes, with pork a speciality from the family piggery. Explore the deli for a wide selection of other, home-made produce as well as Joostenberg wines. joostenberg.co.za

Shops

Vineyard Connection

Great service and selection of more than 200 wines at this shop in the DelVera complex on the R44, about 15 minutes’ drive outside Stellenbosch. Delivery to destinations worldwide is also offered. vineyardconnection.co.za

Oom Samie se Winkel

Modelled on an old rural trading post, Uncle Samie’s store is a must-visit dip into yesteryear. Browse traditional handicrafts and fresh produce or sit on the veranda and watch the world go by. 88 Dorp St, Stellenbosch, +27 (0)21 887 0797

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This year's Decanter World Wine Awards International Trophy for the Best in Show Red Rhône Varietals over £15 went to Château Cesseras, Minervois La Livinière, Languedoc-Roussillon, France 2011 (14.5%)

Tasted against:

• Cederberg, Shiraz, Cederberg, South Africa 2011
• Crossroads, Winemakers Collection Syrah, Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand 2010
• Domaine Brusset, Les Hauts de Montmirail, Gigondas, Rhône, France 2012
• Glaetzer, Bishop Shiraz, Barossa Valley, South Australia, 2012
• Laughing Stock Vineyards, Syrah, Okanagan Valley, Canada 2011
• San Pedro, 1865 Limited Edition Syrah, Elqui Valley, Chile 2010

Profile:

For the Past few years, this International Trophy has been the exclusive preserve of southern hemisphere properties, yet this year sees France wrest it back on behalf of the Old World. Our experts felt this wine delivered everything you could want from a Rhône-style red blend, with spice, vigour and garrigue notes and ‘charming delicacy’, as one judge wrote.

Winemaking has been in the blood of the Ournac family since the mid-19th century, and today its estate covers 65 hectares, though only 15ha of those are in Minervois La Livinière. The region earned appellation status in 1999 and Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvèdre and Carignan are the main varieties planted.

The terraced vineyards that define Minervois La Livinière cover a multitude of soil types including limestone, flint, schist and sandstone, although potentially even more important is the altitude at which they are planted. The vines sit at between 400m and 500m altitude, and so the fruit enjoys a longer and gentler ripening than grapes in lower-lying areas. The resulting wines are often blessed with an appealing freshness as a result of the slower ripening.

Château Cesseras’s Trophy-winning wine is a blend of 70% Syrah, 15% Grenache and 15% Mourvèdre, with 65% of the final blend being aged in French oak for 14 months.

The estate is run by Pierre André Ournac (who trained as a lawyer before joining the family firm in 1985) and his son Guillaume. Pierre André’s brother had been in charge of the property in the mid-1970s until his passing in 2007, but it was Pierre André who was one of the first to realise the potential of La Livinière.

See the full information about this wine

Written by Decanter

We’ve done our bit for the 2012 harvest. Virgile Joly, one of the Languedoc’s most convivial growers, organizes a ‘Journée Sécateurs’ every year for incompetent but wine-friendly families; he let us all loose, about a month ago, on a parcel of Cinsault. To my surprise, we all came home with our fingers intact. It was sticky business, though.

[picture credit: Journee Secateurs – Ken Payton]

The Cinsault produces monster bunches of blobby grapes which it likes to wrap tightly around trellis wires, tendrils and stalks, and we were soon dripping not just with sweat but with grape juice, too. Given the ratio of juice to skins, I now understand why they call it ‘the rosé grape’. Nebbiolo it isn’t.

A little later in the month, I got a chance to sample some mid-ferment wines with the Jeanjean team of oenologist Iain Munson and purchasing director Gilles Gally over at one of the most successful Languedoc cooperatives, Les Trois Grappes at Le Pouget. I’m no expert at this specialized art, but I was genuinely impressed by the freshness and liveliness of this year’s musts. (Delicious Languedoc Sauvignon Blanc? That shows you how unusual a season it is.)

Freshness was the word from Pic St Loup, too, when we called in at the lonely La Gravette cooperative, hurrying to beat the forecast rain in late September. Yves Orliac at Domaine de l’Hortus, surely the Languedoc’s most picturesquely sited wine estate, wedged between the crag of the Pic and the cliffs of Hortus itself, says that 2012 will produce unusually ‘digestible’ wines with ‘reasonable’ alcohol levels. After the sometimes super-sized Languedoc cru 2009s and 2010s, that may come as a relief.

Further north, of course, the outcome of this difficult, tetchy season is looking less happy. Full marks to the BIVB for its honesty in describing a “chaotic spring” which was “very trying for the nerves and brought winegrowers out in a cold sweat”. Frost, hail, sunburn, mildew, rot … you name it, the burgundians have had it this year. Naturally, a little professional optimism is in order (hey everyone, it was the driest August in Chablis since 1976!), but late September hardly covered itself in glory, and many harvesters had a very different experience to our half-day St Saturnin frolic. The Domaine de la Vougeraie harvesters, I learned from its excellent bulletin, were “dashed by the rain, whipped by the wind and chilled by the cold … [and] finished the day soaked to the skin and splattered with mud” on September 26th, as they harvested the Clos de Thorey in Nuits.

Greater Burgundy perhaps had the worst of it, but no French region has had an easy time this year; that professional optimism sounds least unfeigned from the Southern Rhône. In a year like this, though, any judgement on quality before you have a finished sample in a glass in front of you is premature.

The one absolute certainty is that quantity is down. Way down: France will have its smallest harvest since 1991, with just 42.9 million hl expected (that’s 15.7% down on last year). The story is the same in every region, but the reasons are multiple. A patchy, extended flowering was a major cause; frost, hail and disease have taken their toll; the August heatwave reduced yields further. Beaujolais as a whole has harvested just half of its potential crop, as did some domains in Muscadet. Both regions were already crisis-stricken, so this loss of quantity is doubly brutal.

Great news, in other words, for France’s rivals? Not really. There are few bumper crops around this year. Spanish production, after a summer drought, looks set to drop by a third, to an estimated 33 million hl. Italy is even further adrift of its long-term average (it will probably only produce 36 million hl this year in place of the hoped-for 50 million hl, drought being the main culprit there too), and Austria is another nation where one-third of the wine grapes went AWOL in 2012. The southern hemisphere post-harvest totals for 2012 are in general down on 2011, though South Australia has managed a slight increase. Argentina’s 2012 production is 22 per cent down on the 2011 figure. California seems almost alone in contemplating a generous harvest (the state evaded the mid-western drought which has slashed US grain production), but it still won’t be enough to meet the US’s rising shortage of grapes.

That, of course, is the sunny side: the overproduction of the past few years is over. If you’ve lost between 15 and 50 per cent of your 2012 harvest, though, a few more cents or centimes per kilo is poor recompense.

Written by Andrew Jefford