The heavyweights of the northern Rhône are celebrated in an award-winning new book, writes Joe Breen.
"The Northern Rhône faces the 21st century with its tail apparently up. For so long the poor cousin of the grandee regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, it is now an established source of fine wine, its dominant Syrah and Viognier varieties much in demand around the world . . ."
But . . . "the crossroads facing this region now is how to produce good-quality wine that is authentic and acceptable to a better and better-informed public, one that is also bombarded with choice. The wine's price must therefore be competitive, even though its origins - noble as they may be - denote difficulty and obstruction. Scrabbling around an incline of 60 degrees to produce a bottle of wine that sells for under $20 is not likely to keep body and soul together for long."
Last week we highlighted southern Rhône star Domaine Alary's success in creating a name for itself. But it is the northern region which attracts most hardcore devotees, and it has no greater ambassador than a man who rejoices in the name of John Livingstone-Learmonth and whose latest encyclopaedic tome, The Wines of the Northern Rhône has been named the Louis Roederer International Wine Book of the Year for 2006.
The northern Rhône comprises celebrated regions such as Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Condrieu, St Joseph, the legendary Château-Grillet and the potentially awesome Côte-Rôtie. In red wine terms, this is where the Syrah, or the Sérine as it is called locally, is king, while the whites (Viognier, Marsanne and Roussane) are no peasants either. In the Rhône though, "vignerons" typically hail from the soil not the château.
Livingstone-Learmonth (yes, of course, he's English) is quite besotted by the area and its wines, but love does not blind him and he is sharply critical of those who would betray nature's bounty by seeking a quick buck. He reserves his highest praise for what he terms the Soil to Glass Transfer Group whose "wines reflect a sense of place, or terroir, the expression of their sector. Simplicity of approach and purity of flavour are features, and the vigneron's hand is present with the lightest of touches." And he names names in a book likely to become a key reference work.
The Wines of the Northern Rhône is published by the University of California Press, (£30)
Right Price Rhône Stars
Apart from the bottles of the week, there are a number of other outstanding candidates from a recent Côtes du Rhône tasting of bottles costing up to €17, all of which are widely available from Dunnes, Tesco, Superquinn and leading off-licences.
Whites: Château de Bastet Cuvée St Jean 2004, €12.95; Côtes du Rhône Villages Chusclan Les Ribières, Cave de Chusclan 2005, €13.99.
Domaine des Coccinelles 2004, €11.60; Domaine de l'Enclos, Andre Brunel 2003, €14.50; Tesco Finest Côtes du Rhône Réserve, Du Peloux 2004, €8.95; Mas de Libian, Khayyam 2003, €14.