Southern Rhone, and Illinois wines

Missed y'all... for two whole weeks of no blogging. Jeff is a bad blogger. :-( In my defense, I was in Fort Madison for a few days of family time, but still, I've been back for over a week.

So, I have some catching up to do.

Last Wednesday, I had the great joy of meeting the owner and winemaker from Domaine du Vieux Chene, a moderate sized producer from the Southern Rhone Valley of France. He, along with his son and importer, joined our wine group to taste through much of his product line up. All his wines range in price from $10-18, so are quite affordable. And not one is a dud; each is a beautiful reflection of the combination of terroir (the "land" piece) and cepage (the grapes used). While there is unquestionably a "house style" of sorts that is the stamp of the winemaker, it is a gentle stamp indeed.

So, let me tell you a bit more about these wines:
First, there were four white wines--1. a blend of southern rhone classic grapes (grenache blanc and the likes), which was nicely minerally and good fruit, hints of "green" in it, as it was a relatively cool vintage (2008); 2. a 100% viognier wine (a grape more known from the Northern Rhone), this was somewhat less elegant than the much pricier no- Rhone wines from Condrieu, but a nice example of what you can do in the south. It was much less of the quasi-sweet fruit bombs that we see in California viogniers, in particular. 3 and 4. The 2007 and 2008 vintages of a cotes du Rhone that saw a bit of oak. The 07 was beautifully complex and elegant, while the 08 was still a bit unsettled. Nice wines.

Then, 2 roses, from two different regions: The first, from a lower quality classification, was a bit thin and green for my taste, but reflected the cool vintage and the grapes well. the 2nd was clearly riper (from a somewhat hotter site overlooking the river), more fruit driven, with a lot of complexity and nice minerality.

Finally, the highlight of about 10 reds. These are mostly grenache-syrah blends, and ranged from relatively simple, fruit-laden vin de pays to exquisite 2006 and 2007 vintage wines from specific vineyards with unique characteristics. The two sites that provided a lot of the grapes are from river bluffs and from a plain (plan de dieu, or Plains of God) with a lot of hot stones in it. The first produces a more elegant wine with a good blend of fruit and minerals, while the 2nd produces a bigger wine with tons of garrigue (some weedy herbs of Provence) and minerals. Then, the vintages showed so differently-0-the 06's are more elegant, reserved, and pretty, while the 07's have more complexity and heft. I'd say the 07's have more aging potnetial overall, but both are nice.

While no single wine was awful, nor did any just jump out as an "oh my God" moment--each was very nice and interesting. But, the tasting as a whole far exceeded the sum of the individual wines. It was perhaps the best opportunity I've had to look within a single producer, single wine region, to explore simultaneously the blend of grapes, vintages, and specific site to see their impact on the final product. In addition, it is a great chance to talk to the producer and see how he thinks about wine and his grapes. Truly, if you ever get a chance to do something like this, you absolutely MUST take advantage of it. It's an experience second to none.

While in Iowa, I also visited Nauvoo (Illinois, just across the Mississippi from my hometown). There is an old winery there with a variety of grapes and resulting wines. Now, vinifera wines (those we associate with Europe and the West Coast of the US, for example) do not tend to do well in the climate of the Midwest. So, the grapes are usually either American varieties or hybrids between American and vinifera grapes. This means getting out of your usual mindset of what a wine should be, and thinking instead about what _IS_ in the glass. I decided to taste through a few of their dry wines (I find sweet wines, except for great European dessert wines, to usually be cloying and just downright disturbing). I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by some of their wines.

Perhaps the best surprise was the quality of their red wines. The Norton grape showed remarkably well with judicious use of oak for aging, while a blend of chambourcin and Chancellor was also interesting, if rather fruit driven. Their dry concord basically tasted like slightly less sweet Welch's grape juice--not a pleasant taste, and I cannot begin to think what to eat with it. But I think it was well-made; just not my style. Their whites were a bit vegetal and harsh, and not pleasing to my palate, at least at the time of my visit. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant surprise to see what was clearly a good attention to detail in a very honest effort at making wine the right way in a challenging environment.