As you snake your way north up the Rhône valley from
Provence, you reach the
city of Valence and enter into the "upper" Côtes du Rhône
region. This region is different from the southern valley, with terraced
vineyards perched on rocky outcrops of jagged ridges.
The hills become a bit steeper in the area of the town
of Tain l’Hermitage, home to the justly famous vineyards
producing the luscious cru, Hermitage. Judging from the huge
billboards atop the hillside vineyards identifying the growers or negociants
of this lovely wine, we wouldn’t recommend being there in August or
September! But we had a specific purpose in mind, so we crossed the Rhône
at Tain l’Hermitage, heading east to west.
North on the N-86 to Sarras, and we’d found our region.
Among the
13 estimable cru wines of the Côtes du Rhône appellation, none has
been more surprisingly delicious to us than the wonderful red wine of
Saint-Joseph. After having received a few delicious bottles of Paul
Jaboulet's "Le Grand Pompée" as a Christmas gift, we
decided that we should visit that region, and so stopped in the little river town of Saint-Désirat at
the aptly-named Cave de Saint-Désirat, producers of all that is
wonderful in Saint-Joseph wines. We tasted an admirable white wine of
their production, but it was a couple of their reds we really wanted a
crack at. While we were tasting the 1997 red Côte Diane, we noticed it had
recently received a citation from Hachette’s Guide to French Wine as an
outstanding product. And it was: fruity,
smooth, a lovely thing. The young woman behind the tasting bar told us
that the wine was made from quite young vines, and it tasted so: lovely, but…"Can we try the other?" “Bien
sûr!”
Heaven!
The 1998 red Cuvée des Mariniers, produced from vines nearly 50 years
old, had won a gold medal in Macon (Burgundy
country, no less) this past year and it is well-deserved. We bought six bottles at about eight dollars each.
We had a small test in mind: We were to host a small dinner party of about
a dozen, most of them French. We’d see what they
had to say about it. Result?
Home run. Délicieux, they said, wonderful wine. We agree! |
Terraced
vineyards...
A couple of wonderful
Saint-Joseph wines from the upper Rhone valley:
Paul Jaboulet's "Le Grand Pompée"
Cave Saint-Desirat's Cuvée des Mariniers
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