2009 Rhone Valley Offers

The first wines from the sensationally good 2009 vintage are starting to trickle through. The 2009 vintage universally speaking was nothing short of near perfect, when you weigh up the cost of over-hyped and over-inflated Bordeaux,  the wines of the Rhone Valley offer sanity and sound investment for wines that will be accessible almost immediately but will also reward long term cellaring for those that can resist the temptation.

Domaine des Escaravilles – Rasteau

We have been championing the cause of this excellent estate for a number of years now, and as they become better known our allocations seem to dwindle, such is life. If you are yet to try any of the sumptuous wines the 2009 ‘ Le Ventabran’ Cairanne is a great staring point. The secret to this vineyard is the age of the vines and very low yields. The ‘Le Ventabren’ is made up from 70 year old Grenache, 35 year old Syrah and 60 year old Carignan. The wine is showing beautiful concentrated dark red fruits with fresh acidity great tannins. Drink 2013 – 2020

2009 Cairanne ‘Le Ventabren’ £174.00 a dozen

Domaine Calendal – Plan de Dieu

Keep this one to yourselves please! We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag so to speak. This was one of the most impressive wines I tried this year in the Rhone Valley, it drinks way above its Cotes du Rhone Village status.

Domaine Calendal is joint venture between Giles Ferran of Domaine de Escaravailles and the pre-eminent southern Rhone consultant Philipe Cambie. They jointly own this tiny 4 hectare vineyard that is planted 75% Grenache and 25% Mourvedre, the wines are stunning and in very short supply, rarely have I come across a wine with depth and structure like this, it is worth every penny. We have a tiny allocation of 5 dozen bottles.  Drink 2012- 2018

2009 Calendal Cotes du Rhone Villages £244.00 a dozen