Côtes du Rhônes are a dime a dozen. They’re cheap, reliable, and abundant -- you’ll find them everywhere from a fine restaurant to your local supermarket. Most are mass produced, with low tannin and lots of fruit -- they may lack flaws, but they’re short on character too.
Côtes du Rhônes aren’t hard to find these days. They’re cheap, plentiful, and abundant -- you’ll find them everywhere from a fine restaurant to your local Costco. Most are mass produced, with low tannin and lots of fruit -- they may lack flaws, but they’re short on character too.
Côtes du Rhônes are a dime a dozen these days. They’re cheap, plentiful, and abundant -- you’ll find them everywhere from a fine restaurant to your local supermarket. Most are mass produced, with low tannin and lots of fruit -- they may lack flaws, but they’re short on character too.
Last Spring winemaker Eric Chauvin took us out into his vines for our tasting. He believes fervently in organic winemaking, and wanted us to taste his wine en plein air, amid the rich earth from which they spring.
Last April winemaker Eric Chauvin took us out into his vines for our tasting. He believes fervently in organic winemaking, and wanted us to taste his wine en plein air, amid the rich earth from which they spring.
Last week winemaker Eric Chauvin took us out into his vines for our tasting. He believes fervently in organic winemaking, and wanted us to taste his wine en plein air, amid the rich earth from which they spring.
Eric Chauvin’s story is a familiar one. A fifth generation winemaker inherits his family domaine. He begins to bottle the wines himself, tightens up the quality, converts to organic viticulture. We stumbled across Chauvin’s tiny Domaine le Souverain in the Rhône Valley a few years ago, and have been delighted at the discovery.
We spend lots of time reading about French wine regions, following critical reviews and leafing through guides. But our favorite discoveries often come from time spent on the ground. One such pleasant surprise came from a wine list at a small outdoor bistro in Séguret a few years ago.
Merlot has had a rough decade. Though it plays a starring role in some of the world’s rarest and priciest wines (Petrus, Cheval Blanc, Ausone), the Sideways effect has dampened sales and made the grape unfashionable. And we’ll admit, there’s plenty of bland, boring Merlot out there.