Southern Rhône Vintage Analysis: Châteauneuf Leads in 2007 and 2006

It seems the Southern Rhône Valley can do no wrong. Fine weather plus skilled vintners equals great wines year after year. Every vintage from 1998 through 2004 was outstanding (rated 90 points or higher on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale), with the sole exception of rain-drenched 2002—and 2005 earned a classic score. Now 2006 and 2007 are poised to join the hit parade. Based on tastings of hundreds of wines from barrel during visits both in November 2007 and this past June (see my blogs for more details), I am now giving the 2007 Southern Rhône vintage an initial, preliminary rating of 94 to 97 points. Based on both barrel tastings in the region as well as several dozen finished wines already reviewed in blind tastings in our New York office, I am giving the 2006 vintage for the region a preliminary rating of 91 to 94 points. While both vintages offer excellent potential, the two years show very different styles. 2007 is a vintage where ripeness plays a big role—a big role. The wines are fleshy, dense and intensely ripe, with many of the top Châteauneuf-du-Pape cuvées topping out above 16 percent alcohol. It's a hedonist's dream vintage. In 2007, most of France's wine regions languished with cool, wet weather during harvest time. But the Southern Rhône was spared. Instead, an Indian summer reigned, providing perfect weather through September and into early October. "I kept wanting to finish," said Laurence Féraud of Domaine du Pégaü of the long-running harvest. "But the grapes that were coming in at the end were fantastic, and clearly for da Capo," she added, referring to her single-vat cuvée, which is only made in certain years, starting in 1998, and then in 2000 and 2003. She plans to produce it in 2007. The style of the vintage plays right into the hands of the new wave of vignerons making ultraripe, lushly textured Grenache-dominant cuvées. Producers such as Clos St.-Jean, Domaine St.-Préfert/Domaine Ferrando, Domaine Giraud, Olivier Hillaire, Domaine Vacheron-Pouizin and others excelled in 2007, potentially producing some of their best wines to date.

However, producers who favor relative restraint in their wines, including Lucien Michel of Le Vieux Donjon, Thierry Sabon of Clos du Mont-Olivet and others, did not let the vintage's potential quality pass them by. While sticking to their distinctive house styles, they also fashioned outstanding wines. Potentially classic wines were made at Château de Beaucastel and Clos des Papes. If there is an Achilles heel to the 2007s, it will be the yields, which are higher than in recent vintages. Some growers reported bringing in 30 or more hectoliters per hectare [2.2 tons per acre] after a run of low-yielding vintages from 2003 through 2006 that averaged in the range of 25 hl/ha (1.8 tons/acre). In that way, 2007 may be akin to 1998—a vintage that produced extremely ripe, flattering wines, many of which now are starting to show a slightly fluid edge on the finish as they hit maturity. (See my retrospective tasting notes.) A judicious use of grapes such as Mourvèdre and Cinsault, which provide sinew and backbone to the flesh of Grenache, will help separate the genuinely great wines from the over-the-top cuvées. The quality of the 2007 vintage extends beyond Châteauneuf. Wines from Vacqueyras and Gigondas, as well as value bottlings from the Côtes du Rhône-Villages and Côtes du Rhône appellations, will provide deliciously ripe fruit. With the dollar continuing to slide against the euro, U.S. consumers who are having trouble keeping up with their favorite wines from Châteauneuf can look to these other appellations for more relative value. Many of the top producers in Châteauneuf also produce very good to outstanding Côtes du Rhône bottlings, for example. With the potentially large-scaled 2007s now in barrel, 2006 might get lost in the shuffle as it arrives on retail shelves here over the next few months. That would be a shame, as the 2006 vintage offers wines that are fresh, pure and direct. As with 2004, the wines should reward both near-term drinking and moderate cellaring. It's the perfect vintage to consume while waiting for the densely structured 2005s to mature or for the 2007s to arrive.

"2006 is very classic, straight," said Daniel Brunier of the Châteauneuf estates Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe and Domaine La Roquète, and Domaine Les Pallières in Gigondas. "It's more alive than '01, a little more tannic than '04 or '99. The freshness is the main characteristic." The 2006 growing season was marked by warm, dry weather, but not as hot or dry as the vintages from 2003 through 2005. Yields were once again low, in what had become a pattern for the southern Rhône prior to 2007. The main difference for 2006 was the lack of a sustained, concentrating mistral (the strong northern wind that blows down through the valley) at the end of the season, such as the one that marked 2005. In addition, 2006 saw two September rains that were modest in intensity but brought enough moisture to force growers to suspend their picking in hopes that the vineyards would dry out afterward (which they did). The wines are not dilute by any stretch, but they are not nearly as dense as the wines from 2005 or 2007. The 2006 vintage is very consistent, however, from domaine to domaine and throughout the appellations in the south, in contrast to 2007, when some domaines achieved great success while others may have lost focus or balance in their wines. In retrospect, nature has been very generous to the Southern Rhône—not only with consistently remarkable quality for nine out of the past 10 years, but also with vintages that nearly alternate between those that require cellaring and those that are immediately drinkable.




— James Molesworth