Rhône Rangers

In the 1980s, a small band of Californian producers teamed together to form the Rhône Rangers to promote wines made from varieties, such as Syrah, Grenache, and Viognier, grown in that great French region. Then in 1989, the Perrin family, who own Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, bought property in Paso Robles, together with their US importer Robert Haas. While waiting to establish the Tablas Creek winery, they imported cuttings directly from their property in the southern Rhône, making available for the first time other quality Rhône varieties such as Mourvèdre and Counoise as well as whites like Grenache Blanc.

The popularity of these wines is still small, but production and quality is rising. Paso Robles, with its warm climate and limestone soils, has emerged as the epicentre of Rhône styles of wine. It's not the only region though: Santa Ynez Valley further south makes peppery Syrah; the Sierra Foothills, hotter and higher, have great potential for wines from Mourvèdre; and, beyond California, Washington, with its more continental climate, also makes great wine from Rhône varieties.

At a Rhône Rangers event in San Francisco, I tasted a number of wines, some blends, some from famous varieties, and some from little-known varieties. Here are some of the highlights.

wines and their makers

Tablas Creek Terret Noir 2015 ($35)

There are 18 different varieties allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, some of them rarely used and if so only for blending. As Tablas Creek have access to cuttings of all the Châteauneuf grapes, they have the chance to experiment with them and learn what the wines from the more obscure varieties actually taste like. They have just 0.2ha of Terret Noir, which they plan to use for blending but they've also made a varietal bottling to share the taste of this obscure variety. The grape has big berries and dark skins, yet, conversely, it produces a very pale coloured wine reminsicent of Nebbiolo. The wine is floral, herbal, and spicy, with red fruits and really dry tannins (again not dissimilar to Nebbiolo). It would make a fantastic pairing with a wide range of food (duck, game, meat, roast veg) and I hope Tablas Creek continue to make wine from the variety. ✪✪✪✪✪

On a side note, two people at the tasting described the tannins of the Terret Noir as "tacky." I've never heard this word used to describe tannins and it was equally confusing to Tablas Creek winemaker Neil Collins who said "that doesn't sound very pleasant." A dictionary has the following definition: "(of glue, paint, or other substances) not fully dry and retaining a slightly sticky feel: the paint was still tacky." So I suppose describing the dry tannins of the Terret Noir as tacky was accurate, but, given it usually refers to something that's cheap and low-quality, it's still not a word I'll be using.

Adelaida Vineyards Picpoul Blanc 2015 ($35)

Picpoul is allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, although most white wines from there are blends of other varieties. Further west, Picpoul is the grape variety for Picpoul de Pinet on the Languedoc coast, one of the few French appellations that contains the name of the grape (other areas now technically have to spell it Piquepoul). The wines there are light, fresh, and acidic - Picpoul literally means "lip-stinger." Picpoul wines being made in Paso Robles are quite different, heavier and fuller-bodied, but still with a refreshing acidity - Adelaida's winemaker, Jeremy Weintraub, said the wine had over 9g/L of total acidity, which is remarkable in such a warm wine region. Adelaida's Picpoul Blanc was a great example of a balance between the rich ripeness coming from the warm climate of Paso Robles and the natural acidity of the grape. ✪✪✪✪✪

Qupé Roussanne 2012 ($30)

Under Bob Lindqvist, Qupé were one of the original Rhône Rangers. They're based in Santa Maria, making wines from Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, and, most notably, Roussanne and Marsanne. These are two of the great white grapes of the Rhône, but it's rare to see them elsewhere. Marsanne, which has a waxy, oily texture, is the base of white Hermitage in the northern Rhône, while Roussanne, which has more aromas and acidity, is at the heart of white Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Roussanne is my favourite because of the rich aromatics, acidity, and the easy way it takes to oak ageing. Both these grapes also age wonderfully well in bottle, maintaining their structure while developing mature, complex aromas: this wine was from 2012 and still felt young and fresh. ✪✪✪✪

Mourvèdre geek: where are the accents?

Seven Oxen Mourvèdre 2014 ($42)

In contrast to Qupé, Seven Oxen is a new project and I tasted three of their wines from the 2014 vintage, just their second. Their winemaker is Bastien Leduc from south-west France, so he's used to working in the warm climate of Paso Robles. Because of the climate, late-ripening Mourvèdre works perfectly in Paso, the hot summer and warm autumn getting the grape gradually ripe. There were plenty of good examples at the Rhône Rangers tasting; Seven Oxen's Mourvèdre stood out with rich, ripe black fruit, warm mouthfeel, and dry (not tacky) tannins. ✪✪✪✪✪

Wrath Ex Anima Syrah ($25)

Oak abounds in California, so it's always refreshing to taste wines that have seen no new oak. There were quite a few wineries emphasising the lack of oak in the wines, so maybe the tide is turning. Wrath are based in Monterey, an area that has history with Rhône varieties (mainly because of Bonny Doon, another of the original Rhône Rangers). This Syrah is only aged in old oak, so the purity of the fruit really shines through. It also makes it easier to drink young, but there are plenty of complex black fruit and spice aromas. Even better, the lack of oak cuts down on the price. ✪✪✪✪

A lot of these Rhône Rangers are beginning to produce single-varietal wines (which is what I've focused on here) as a means of attracting consumer interest. Don't forget the blends, because that's what the Rhône itself excels in, but if these single-varietal wines can get people drinking wines from the wonderful range of varieties it can only be a good thing. And the love for these styles of wines is definitely spreading: I got to taste for the first time wines from Arizona! Grown at 1,700m altitude just an hour from the Mexican border, the Viognier and two Grenache wines I tasted were pretty good. If there's a future in Arizona for winemaking, maybe it will come from the Rhône...

Rune wines from Arizona, with labels by a local graphic artist

Bandol

My second visit to Oakland saw a sun-soaked evening with views that could have been straight from Marseille in Provence. Appropriately enough, because I was there to join a long-established San Francisco tasting group to explore the wines of Bandol, a small Provençal appellation not far from Marseille, with vintages going back to 1993. As we sipped on a rosé from legendary Bandol producer Domaine Tempier, while looking out on Lake Merritt, the city hall, and San Francisco in the background, one member of the group commented, "This almost makes me want to move to Oakland."

the place

Bandol, like the rest of Provence, is best known for its rosés, as these complex, aromatic wines, based on the Mourvèdre grape, go beyond the general perception of rosé as a simple, light-coloured, easy-drinking summer wine. If there is one rosé worth spending $30-50 for a bottle, then it's Bandol. However, these rosés - unusually - overshadow the great reds of Bandol, again based on Mourvèdre. These big, structured reds emerged around the time of the Second World War, from grapes grown on steep terraces directly overlooking the Mediterranean. The climate is warm, with intensely hot summer days and mild winters, ideal for the late-ripening Mourvèdre. The altitude of the high terraces, together with the moderating influence of the sea, help cool the climate to prevent the grapes developing too powerful aromas. All of these complex dynamics lead to wines that are tannic and closed when young, but which slowly open up with time.

domaine tempier

Domaine Tempier are an example of Provence's long winemaking history, dating back to the eighteenth century, but also of the recent development of the region's great red wines. Until the late nineteenth century when artists came to paint the beautiful, remote landscape, Provence was a rural Mediterranean region cut off from metropolitan Paris. This meant that its wines did not develop in the same manner as regions such as Bordeaux which were more connected to cosmopolitan markets. It was in the 1940s that Domaine Tempier emerged as one of the leading wineries of Bandol, when Lucien Peyraud and his wife Lucie Tempier moved into the property. They weren't the only ones to notice the potential of Bandol, and with a handful of other producers they pushed to have Bandol recognised as a great winemaking region by basing the wines on Mourvèdre. Sought-after if still not widely known, Domaine Tempier's wines are defiantly old-fashioned: funky and difficult when young, but concentrated and long-lived, and one of the great expressions of the Mourvèdre grape. 

mourvèdre and the blends

eight Mourvèdre-based wines

Bandol is the one appellation in France where Mourvèdre is the most important grape. It produces smoky, earthy wines with bramble fruits and plays a small, if significant, role in the wines of southern Rhône. In warm Bandol, this late-ripening grape comes into its own; at the same time, however, I feel Mourvèdre is still at its best in a blend, even when the dominant grape. (This is true too of Paso Robles in California, the one other region I know of that excels in Mourvèdre-based wines.) The big black fruits, black pepper and liquorice spice, and dry tannins are best balanced by the red fruits and low tannins of Grenache and the fruity softness of Cinsault. This was the case with the seven Bandol wines I tasted: my three favourite wines had 50-70% Mourvèdre in them. This highlights the complexity and range of the Bandol appellation, with a series of grapes working together to create extraordinary wines. 

 

the wines

These wines were all tasted blind, apart from the rosé. I'm not a huge fan of tasting wines this way, as instead of being educated about the wine it becomes a guessing game. We also had to rank the wines from first to last, again difficult given the range of vintages. But the tasting highlighted the consistent quality of Bandol reds, their ageability, as well as how surprisingly approachable they can be while young.

Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé 2015

Floral, aromatic, and casually sophisticated, this is a young wine that is easy to sip on but has enough structure to continue ageing and to be paired with a range of foods, including salmon or soft cheeses. The only one of these wines not to be tasted blind. ✪✪✪✪✪

my tasting notes and ranking

Wine A: Domaine la Suffrène 1998

This was my number one ranked wine, with mature earth, game, leather, mushroom aromas, but still with fresh black fruit aromas of brambles, together with black pepper and liquorice aromas. The tannins were drying but old enough to be well intergrated. ✪✪✪✪✪✪ (#1 for me; #3 for the group)

Wine B: Domaine de la Bastide Blanche 2012

I've tasted this a few times teaching, and I again liked this wine with its smoky, toasty, floral, and blackberry aromas, the tannins not too aggressive despite its youthfulness. A good example of how Bandol can be approachable when young. ✪✪✪✪✪ (#3 for me, #5 for the group)

Wine C: Domaine de Terrebrune Rouge 2011

Founded in the 1960s, Domaine de Terrebrune also helped push Bandol into the international spotlight. Another good example of Bandol at a young stage of its development, with floral, spicy, black fruit aromas. ✪✪✪✪✪ (#4 for me and for the group)

Wine D: Domaine Tempier la Migoua 2003

From one of Domaine Tempier's most famous vineyards: this should have been very exciting to taste, especially at a perfect point of its development at thirteen years old. However, I personally found the wine disappointing and wondered if it was corked. The rest of the group loved it though ... ✪✪✪ (#8 for me; #1 for the group)

Wine E: Porvey 2015

This was the ringer in the tasting - a Mourvèdre from California. As it was only from 2015 and tasted like it had only just stopped fermenting, it was quite easy to spot. It was from the Sierra Foothills, which I do think has great potential for Mourvèdre. ✪✪✪ (#7 for me; #7 for the group)

Wine F: Domaine Tempier la Migoua 1993

tasting notes and results

On tasting these wines blind, I found this wine very similar to Wine D - it was in fact from the same vineyard - but more alive, fresh, and vibrant, despite its faded colour and nose. The palate was particularly, and surprisingly, fresh with lively black fruits and acidity together with mature, animal aromas. This wine proves how well Bandol ages. ✪✪✪✪✪✪ (#2 for me; #2 for group)

Wine G: Domaine Tempier Cabassaou 2013

This time, a little too young: Domaine Tempier, and Bandol in general, do need time to open up, especially with the drying tannins. Still, attractively floral. ✪✪✪✪ (#5 for me; #6 for group)

Wine H: Château de Pibarnon 2010

Perhaps the least interesting of the wines tasted, and the one with the most Mourvèdre (90%), with a confusing combination of high tannins, high acidity, fading colour, black and dried fruits. Neither old nor young, probably needing some more time to come together. That's the way wine can work: immediate and appealing when young; attractively mellow when old; but confused and indeterminate when adolescent. ✪✪✪ (#6 for me; #8 for the group)