Off the beaten track in the N. Rhone

Hi all,

Lauren and I will be spending a week in the Rhone Valley in late August and were hoping to get some recommendations from folks that have been before. It seems to me (for obvious reasons) that most places people recommend are relatively well distributed here in the States (Guigal, Chapoutier, Jamet, Ogier, Jaboulet, etc.). Are there any producers in the North that people like that don’t get shipped over the pond very often? We’re preparing to bring some bottles back and I’d rather not take up space with things I can just as easily get at home. They can be classically styled, modernist, experimental/natural, or downright weird, we’re open to explore.

We have some appointments already scheduled and some places will be open for drop in, I think thus far we are scheduled at Vernay, Verset, Delas, Voge, and Dom. du Tunnel, with emails out to many others. Does T. Allemand do tours or cave sales? I know he’s risen in prominence quite far in the past decade or so, which makes me think he’s probably not hurting for attention but man we do love his wine.

I’m also planning a N. Rhone trip in September, so I’d be interested in hearing whether anyone has any thoughts on Bryan’s question.

Bernard Burgaud, Gilles Barge, Bernard Levet, Jean Michel Gerin, Clusel-Roche are some that come to mind in Ampuis. If going to Hermitage Bernard Faurie is a must. If going to Mauves in the St. Joseph AOC, Pierre Gonon. You might consider Eric Texier, though he is in Charnay, north of Lyon, but makes among the best N. Rhones IMO. Hope that helps.

Many posts here about No Rhone visits. In any case, I’ll add a tasting visit at Domaine Jamet for some of the best wines in Ampuis.

In case you have not yet checked out my trip report from January perhaps you can find something of interest there: Good times in Ampuis (tl;dr) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Allemand is not the easiest visit to have arranged but very highly recommended. Other good options could be Clusel-Roch, Rousset and Julien Cécillon. Gonon is indeed great and in the same village Jean-Claude Marsanne as well. I enjoyed Gaillard’s wines as well, although they have more oak than some others.

Great trip report. Thanks for the input.

Anyone visited Levet? It looks like they have a tasting room in Ampuis with tastings available by appointment.

We got back last night and were able to visit quite a few producers in the 2 days we were in the North. We ended up seeing Alberic Mazoyer @ Voge, Rene Rostaing (cannot recommend more highly, super nice guy and his wines were out of this world), Clusel Roch, Alain Verset (another wonderful experience, his daughter and co-winemaker Emmanuelle was so warm and willing to spend the time with us, wine was great too), Delas Freres, Jean Luc Colombo, Dom. du Tunnel, and Corps de Loup before we headed south. All in all I found setting up visits and dropping in to be much easier than I expected, and that people were warm and happy to talk with you if you showed some informed interest in what they do.

I was surprised at how many producers in the north sell ex-cave rather than retail to visitors, good information to know if you’ll be there and want to take stuff home. CdP producers sell at around US retail but in Cote Rotie and Cornas we were paying pennies for life-changing stuff. Wish we had more space in our luggage! I think we’ll do a more full write-up later but we still need to unpack!

Is it difficult for Gonon? Can’t find any emails.

Out of curiosity, did you generally converse in French or English? My French skills are hardly adequate for anything more than ordering at a restaurant, so any wine making discussion would be completely lost on me.

I think my French violates the Geneva Convention, but I picked up a phrase or two that helped and most of the winemakers and tasting room staff spoke some English or had someone around that could, only once or twice was the communication barrier so bad that we just basically drank in silence. Rene Rostaing’s English is actually pretty decent, but you just can’t talk super fast. He was quite funny and patient with us, very kind. Laurent Charvin in CdP and his wife spoke quite well, as did Emmanuelle Verset, though her father spoke none that I could tell. We were able to actually have moderately technical conversations at both places in English with regards to growing, vinification, etc. It sort of helps that a lot of winemaking terms are already in French (cepage, elevage, terroir, vigneron, foudre, etc). Voge was quite the challenge.

I would kind of wander blindly up to wineries and just sort of sheepishly utter “ouvert pour degustez?” or “ouvert? degustez est possible?” and people would get my drift and were always quite friendly. I’ve found it helps to understand that the French are used to a sort of baseline formality that isn’t commonplace in the UK or the East Coast, but that is really common in the Pacific Northwest. “Bonjour monsieur/madame” when you approach or walk in somewhere, “s’il vous plait monsieur/madame” and “merci monsieur/madame” every time you do something “merci beaucoup au revoir” when you leave and they seem to warm to you quite easily because you’re acting “correctly”. Being a superficially polite Seattleite made ingratiating myself with the French feel like second nature! champagne.gif