Walls: Exploring Côtes du Rhône Villages Sablet

Imagine you’re an actor in a film with a large ensemble of other highly competent artists. None of you are household names. But the lead role has just been cast – and it’s gone to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

On the one hand, it’s good to have a superstar to draw attention to the movie. But on the other hand, you can’t help but feel in the shadow of this huge, charismatic individual.

That’s what it must be like sometimes, to be a winemaker in the southern Rhône.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for 17 Sablet wines

It’s unusual for a whole wine region to be so dominated by one name, but Châteauneuf-du-Pape is recognised the world over. In terms of fame, no other Rhône appellation compares.

Châteauneuf is famous for big, powerful, muscular wines, so it’s unsurprising that people sometimes measure other Rhône appellations by the same yardstick. But other terroirs are bound to come up short, as they just don’t deliver that kind of wine. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t just as valid in their own way.

Can elegance, for example, be a strength? I think it can.

For those looking for a more compact expression of the southern Rhône, one that celebrates finesse, Sablet is a good place to look.

Against the grain

Sablet is one of the 21 named villages of the southern Rhône. It’s situated next door to Gigondas, at the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail massif.

If you try to make a Châteauneuf-style red here – dark in colour, concentrated, with bold tannins – you’re destined to fail. The terroir will simply not provide that – because Sablet is built on sand.

In fact, sable is the French for sand.

There’s safre here too – a compact sandstone that’s ‘almost harder than rock,’ according to appellation co-president Philippe Lambert of Domaine des Pasquiers.

You can spot jagged lumps of it like broken paving slabs around the perimeter of some vineyards where they’ve been hauled out the ground by tractors.

A third of the terrain here is made up of these sandy soils, laid down when the area was flooded by the Mediterranean Sea millions of years ago.

Grow red grapes on sand, and typically what you’ll get is a wine that’s relatively pale in colour, medium-bodied rather than full, with very fine tannins. White and rosé wines usually have a refined, elegant style too, when produced from these soils.

According to Loïc Alazard of Domaine les Sibu, the other co-president of the appellation, ‘it’s our signature – purity and elegance.’

Cast and cru

For most wine lovers, a pale colour isn’t a problem when it comes to red wines. If you pour a Pinot Noir, a Cinsault or a Poulsard that’s overly dark, it’s grounds for suspicion.

But the southern Rhône is a region that prizes a deep, dark hue in the glass. Perhaps that’s one factor that’s held Sablet back from being promoted to cru status.

Sablet was given ‘named village’ status back in 1974 – this year marks its 50th anniversary – yet winemakers are still struggling to push it further up the appellation rankings.

Lambert and Alazard are leading a contingent of dedicated winemakers, ‘but it takes a lot of time,’ says Lambert – they have to toil away on the project after work for free. But for Alazard, success will be worth it.

‘To be a cru is a sign of quality, of prestige,’ he says. ‘As a village, we’re a child; but as a cru, we’ll be an adult.’

Alazard is in his 30s, and lists eight or so other domaines that are in the hands of colleagues of a similar age. A new generation is gradually taking over, which he hopes will be a source of renewed energy and resolve.

Of the now-21 named villages of the southern Rhône (Laudun was recently promoted from village to cru), it’s clear that Sablet is among the most deserving of promotion.

Its wines have an identifiable natural style, one that celebrates nuance and elegance.

Just like Hollywood, the southern Rhône can do many styles well. And sometimes, rather than Arnold Schwarzeneggar, it’s Timothée Chalamet that’s right for the role.

17 Sablet wines to try

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