Domaine de la Solitude

This is one of those amazing stories of winemaking turnarounds. It’s not easy for winegrowers to change. There are just too many variables — the vines, the cellar, the vagaries of the growing season. But, when brothers Jean and Michel Lancon hired renowned enologist Didier Richard, they had an idea. Domaine de la Solitude had been more of a follower than a trailblazer in Chateauneuf, making wines that were excellent and highly structured in the ’50s and ’60s, before coming full circle in the ’70s and ’80s, putting out simpler, fruity wines. But with the page turning on the century, the Lancons wanted to shake things up, making one special wine that they would love. It would be rich, plump, a bit more feminine, the kind of wine you could drink on release or age for a decade or two. That’s what Jean told Richard, and that’s how, in 1999, “Barberini” was born.

Made largely from 100-year-old, pre-phyloxerra Grenache vines planted in the alluvial patches of Solitude, the Lancons and Richard have fashioned one of the most luscious, forward, explosively juicy Chateauneufs of the last decade. But they did something else. The deep roots of these old Grenache plants spider through the calcareous substrata, injecting the grapes with mineral verve. So while the 2006 “Barberini” is luscious, it’s also incredibly long and fresh. In the excellent, warm 2006 vintage, the top cuvees from Solitude are among the very top wines of the appellation — and this “Barberini” is the feminine treasure of Solitude. Read the rest of this entry »

The vines of Domaine le Couroulu

What are we willing to do to get our hands on the best wines from the best producers of a southern Rhone appellation in 2007? Almost anything. Including paying in advance (it seems producers are getting more and more concerned about late or non-payment these days!), and when necessary, taking a label other than the one that was presented to the press!

So when we tasted the astonishing 2007s from one of Vacqueyras’s superstars — a guy Robert Parker describes as the reference point for the appellation — we were ready to pull the trigger. The problem was that winegrower Guy Richard had an importer with whom he’d been working for a number of years and was uncomfortable giving both of the same label. No matter. We just told M. Richard, “Nous sommes concernes par le vin dans la bouteilles, pas l’etiquette sur la bouteille!” (”We’re interested in what’s in the bottle, not what’s on it!”) Read the rest of this entry »

Diamond Mountain District, Napa Valley

We grew up with the Diamond Creek Cabernets — Gravelly Meadow, Volcanic Mountain, Red Rock Terrace — of the late 1970s. Back then, a bunch of us could put 20 bucks into a cookie jar and buy a dozen bottles of top mountain Cabernets. Sometimes those Diamond Creek wines were superb. They were huge, and deeply colored, and occasionally, the hard mountain tannins were fully mature and the wines just went on and on. But all too often, the wines were hard as a rock: California’s version of 1975 Bordeaux. Not sure if those Cabernets ever came around.

Much has changed in Napa over the last 25 years, not least of which is the acumen and viticultural know-how that’s brought to bear by the top echelon of Napa Valley winemakers. So years ago, when David Ramey decided to begin purchasing fruit from Diamond Mountain, we were intrigued. Ramey is a perfectionist and a purist, and as such, it took him a few years. He knew what he was after — the perfect marriage of small berry, spiky Diamond Mountain ripeness and grip with the utter hedonism of Larkmead. But it wasn’t until he commissioned grapes from the J Davies Vineyard that the Diamond Mountain picture came into perfect focus. Read the rest of this entry »

Xavier Vignon

We had heard all about Xavier Vignon. The ingenious enologist’s hands are all over Chateauneuf-du-Pape — an astounding 65% of the appellation’s producers work with Xavier. The client list is star-studded — Marcoux (98 points), La Nerthe (95), and Grand Veneur, among others.

A few years ago, Vignon decided to make wine on his own. Not much wine, just enough to satisfy his curiosity. What if he was to buy small lots of wine from his clients, wines that Vignon had followed from vine to cask (perhaps even accept wine from some in lieu of payment for enology services)? And what if he only chose the best; 90-plus-year-old Grenache, perfectly placed sand-soil Syrah? And in the long, drawn out 2007 harvest, what if he purchased as much of the slow-to-ripen old-vine Mourvedre as possible and produced a Chateauneuf that combined the enormous ripeness of the vintage, with the wonderful acid balance and aromatic complexity provided by the Mourvedre? Read the rest of this entry »