Walls: top picks from Yapp’s Big Rhône Tasting

After a long lunch while on holiday in France in 1969, Robin Yapp indulged in some highly enthusiastic wine buying. We’ve all done it, I suppose. But when a whole pallet of wines turned up at the door of his home in Mere, Wiltshire, he decided the most sensible course of action was to place a notice in the Sunday Times newspaper offering some for sale. And thus, the wine merchant Yapp Brothers was born.

A lover of the Rhône, two of the first estates on Yapp’s books were Domaine Clape in Cornas and Domaine Champet in Côte-Rôtie.

A few years later he added another Côte-Rôtie estate, Domaine Jasmin, as well as Domaine Chave in Hermitage. Since then, Yapp has gradually put together a list of some of the best names in the region.

Scroll down to see Matt Walls’ top-scoring picks from Yapp’s Big Rhône Tasting

Today the business is run by Robin’s son Jason Yapp and stepson Tom Ashworth. Although they sell wines from all over the world, they still sell more than twice as many wines from the Rhône than any other region, and nearly a quarter of their business is Rhône.

Like most UK merchants, they hold occasional trade and press events, but their recent tasting at 67 Pall Mall in London was the first comprehensive Rhône tasting they’ve held in a decade.