Jonny's Wine Diary

Chateau Unang and the bad death
published: Thursday, July 09, 2009

The sun was shining when I visited James King at Chateau Unang in the Ventoux wine region between the Rhone valley and Provence. The surrounding area was a papal state for many centuries and only became part of France after the revolution in the 18th century. The nearby village is called Malemort (bad death) and the remains of the 100km wall built to stop the plague spreading into the valley from Marseilles are above the vineyards. James bought this beautiful 900 year old chateau and estate, once the ruling bishop's summer residence, ten years ago.


He then retrained as a winemaker and has worked hard ever since in the vineyards and winery, realising a life long dream to make his own wine. Fans of the best selling La Source red wine will know that he does an excellent job. We started lunch under a plane tree in the courtyard with the Cuvee Adeline white (a barrel aged Rousanne) and followed on with the excellent 2008 rose and 2007 unoaked red. As the meal progressed James explained that his red wines really come into their own three or more years after the vintage but they have proved so popular that he sells out each year and finds it hard to keep back much stock from older vintages for his many local and visiting customers who buy direct from the caveau.

The highlight of the day was the final red poured with cheese. James has made a single barrel (about 400 bottles) of Syrah in the northern Rhone style, but replacing the usual small amount of Viognier with Roussanne to give it a southern Rhone twist. Quite delicious and I have persuaded him to sell me a few cases for you when it is ready. Watch this space!

Chateau Unang wines

Chateau Unang, Route de Methamis, Malemort-du-Comtat, Provence
Tel: +33(0)4 90 69 91 37 Call James first to check opening times
www.chateauunang.com

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2006 Burgundy Tastings
published: Thursday, February 14, 2008

I've just got back from a great week in sunny Burgundy tasting the 2006 vintage. Overall the vintage was picked in good warm conditions and I give it 8/10. Whites and Reds are both early drinkers with good fruit and a rounded and supple finesse. I would drink them earlier than the 2005s.

Nathalie and Gilles Fevre have a great family pedigree and their 1er Cru whites were a revelation. The rare 1er Cru Vaulorent is made from grapes right next to the Les Preuses Grand Cru vineyard and is a real find. Look out for these wines on our list soon.




Daniel Seguinot is a true bon viveur and his Chablis 2006 will be a great summer white this year. Tastings with his daughters are always epic affairs. His 1er Cru Fourchaume 2005 is very good indeed.






Philippe Chavy's delicious whites from Puligny Montrachet and Meursault were on good form indeed. We tasted his 2006s straight from the barrel and he opened up several bottles from older vintages so that we could check on their development (it's a tough job!). His wines are selling out very quickly each year so we were lucky to get hold a few cases for our fine wine customers. I have already reserved my 2007 allocation.






Vincent and Aline Bouzereau kindly laid on lunch for us in Meursault with four of their six children in attendance. Wild boar stew (shot by a worker on their Aligote vineyard) was washed down with Meursault 2003 and Corton Grand Cru 1999. Delicious - as indeed all of Vincent's 2006 Meursaults, Beaunes and Volnays reds were. These wines will be arriving with us in the summer.

Our final stop was with Anne Jafflin at Nuits Saint Georges. We tasted 2006 Gevrey Chambertin, Nuits Saint Georges, Cotes de Nuits Villages and a fantastic Vosne Romanee 1er Cru from vines 50 yds away from the world famous La Tache Grand Cru plot straight from the barrel. All of these wines will be appearing in our fine wine offer soon.




Daniel Seguinot Chablis
Philippe Chavy Puligny Montrachet
Vincent Bouzereau Burgundies

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Hidden Gems from the South West
published: Wednesday, March 07, 2007

We have all heard of the Bordeaux region, but I have long been wanting to make a trip to South West France to the once more famous up country wine areas of the Dordogne, Lot, Tarn and Garonne. I spent a week there recently and was not disappointed.

First stop Buzet near Agen where I was advised that the best grower in the area was at Chateau du Pech. Ludovic farms his vines biodynamically and his Cabernet and Merlot red from the 2001 vintage was leafy, complex and a delight.

Onto Gascony where I stayed near Eauze with the Deche family at Chateau de Millet in their pigeonnier. I went in search of whites and ended up being seduced by their wonderful hospitality and fantastic vintage Armagnacs.

Jurancon is a long way south, close to the Pyrenees near Pau. The dry and sweet whites from the Manseng grape family are some of the world's best food wines. Domaine de Bellegarde's wines were excellent and I completely fell for their Cuvee Thibault 2004 sweet wine. Serve chilled as an aperitif or with fruit desserts.

Chateau de Saurs in Gaillac makes a range of styles from dry to semi sweet moelleux whites (anyone heard of the Len de Lel grape?) to lovely deep reds. Their Reserve Eliezer red was recently voted one of the Top 20 wines from the South West. Lovely stuff.

Cahors is well known to holidaymakers in the Lot valley and has a mixed history. This is Malbec territory and I found a suoerb ready to drink 2000 wine at Chateau de Rouffiac.

Finally Bergerac and a visit to our friend Christian Roche at the award winning Domaine Ancienne Cure. He was particularly pleased that Decanter had picked him out for a visit and given one of his 2003 Monbazillac sweet whites three stars.

Other than a small altercation with Ryanair at Bergerac airport where I had to check in a tin of Fois Gras, this was an eye opening trip that left me impressed with the range of styles and quality of wines that the South West has to offer.

You can buy some of my favourite wines from the trip here:
Cotes de Gascogne Colombard Ugni Blanc
Gaillac Reserve Elizier
Monbazillac L'Abbaye'

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Saint Chinian and wild boar
published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Encore du sanglier enquires Michel and I have to admit I cannot resist. We are just outside the village of Saint-Chinian on the edge of the Haut Languedoc forest with our winemaking friends the Depaules. The kids (ours and theirs) are in the pool on front of us, the sun is sliding into the horizon and we are enjoying a glass or three of Michel's finest with a leg of roasted wild boar. It doesn't get much better than this!

We are here to catch up with a few of our winemakers and track down some new ones. It is a trip we make several times a year, sometimes as a family, sometimes not, searching for great wines from small-scale producers for our wine business in the UK. I know what you are thinking, but trust me, for every successful cellar visit there are probably twenty or so less inspiring ones. Thirsty work, but someone has to do it!

Winemaking and food continue to be the heartbeat of regional France and the sheer diversity of wine styles that the country produces never ceases to amaze me. Despite what you may read about the crisis with French wine, my experience on the ground is that the quality of mid priced and upwards wines continues to improve as a younger generation with new ideas take over from their parents. With 175,000 people making wine in France there is still plenty of opportunity for uncovering new rising stars.

Rugby playing Michel Depaule is a good example. His Domaine la Maurerie Syrah, Grenache and Carignan red wines are delicious expressions of the area (blackberries and woodland fruits with scents of the wild herbs of the garrique) and perfect partners with local food ? viande en sauce as his wife Maria puts it. In fact the Languedoc region has twice as much land planted with vines as the whole of Australia but a lot of the good stuff never reaches our shores as the smaller scale winemakers do not make enough to get on the radar of the supermarkets. This suits us just fine of course.

Buy Michel's wines here:
Saint Chinian Esprit du Terroir
Saint Chinian Vieilles Vignes

Domaine la Maurerie, Prades sur Vernazorbes, near Saint Chinian
Tel: +33 04 67 38 22 09 Call Maria first to check opening times

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Burgundy and terroir
published: Friday, April 21, 2006

We've cranked the car northwards now and are with ex DJ and rising star Olivier Morin in the pretty village of Chitry-le-Fort four miles outside of Chablis in northern Burgundy. It gets very cold here in winter but today it's 30?C and Olivier's cool cellar is a welcome relief from the heat. He hands me a lump of rock. "Crushed oyster fossils from 60 million years ago" he says with a grin. "It's the reason why our crisp dry Chardonnay wines go so well with shellfish".

This fascination with what's under the topsoil, the climate and a sense of place - what the French call terroir - crops up regularly on our trips and my initial scepticism about the idea that the same grape variety grown 50 miles apart can produce different styles of wine has long since been dispelled.

How else does one explain the clear differences in taste between the famous white Burgundies from Chablis, Meursault and the Maconnais? They are all made with just Chardonnay grapes after all. The crisp, minerally Chablis wines endure cooler winters, the elegant, fuller bodied Meursaults have spent some time in oak barrels and the riper, fruitier Macon whites are a result of a sunnier climate and limestone. Viola!

Bourgogne Chitry
Macon La Roche Vineuse

Olivier Morin, Chitry-le-Fort, near Chablis
Tel: +33 03 86 41 47 20 Call first to check opening times

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Chateauneuf du Pape and pudding stones
published: Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Our final pit stop on this trip is the Southen Rhone past the fruit trees near Montelimar, through Orange and into Chateauneuf du Pape. Even here there are jewels to discover. Domaine Durieu's winemaker Antione Ferre has a handshake that has me wincing in pain and a thick midi accent that my schoolboy French is having a hard time getting to grips with. We met Antione and Paul Durieu's sons Francois and Vincent at a small wine fair near Lyon and were so impressed that we have come down to see them. The large, flat pudding stones that cover the vineyards here have been washed down the Rhone river valley from the Alps and help to ripen the low Grenache and Syrah bush vines to a whopping 14% or 15% of alcohol.

The Durieu's Cotes du Rhone Villages is powerful and stylish with wonderful blackberry and spice flavours. Their secret is the quality of their grapes from in and around Chateauneuf du Pape and the way they mature their wines in huge wooden vats (foudres) to aerate and soften them. I'm already thinking of a steak frites and salad or beef and pickled walnuts.

With so many undiscovered winemakers still to track down, it's a shame to return home, but we?ll be back on the road soon. Next stop Gaillac, Cahors and Jurancon. Au revoir!

Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve

Domaine Durieu, 10 Avenue Baron Le Roy, Chateauneuf du Pape
Tel: +33 04 90 37 28 14 Call first to check opening times

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Lunch in the Pyrenees foothills
published: Saturday, July 23, 2005

In the foothills of the Pyrenees, we are three hours into one of the best lunches we have ever had. Pierre Escudié at Domaine de Nidoleres supplements the income he gets from his wine with a small ferme auberge restaurant right in the middle of his vineyard.

We are one of only three tables enjoying Madame Escudié's excellent cooking on a small terrace gazing out over the mountains. The kids have long since given up on lunch and are chasing a pair of peacocks through the vines while Pierre, who has already spent the last two hours with us, insists that we try his dessert wines to round off the meal.

Local meatballs in a wonderfully reduced sauce (pork, beef and fois gras with absolutely no eggs is Madame's secret recipe), pheasant with cream and peppercorns and a selection of local cheeses have already been washed down with some of Pierre's delicious Cotes du Roussillon reds before he comes back out of the kitchen with two different coloured vendange tardive (late harvest) wines in appealing 50cl bottles.

Mais, bein sur .. this golden one is for desserts with apples, peaches and nectarines, and the red one is for tarte aux cerises and red soft fruit desserts he said, looking at us as if we were completely mad not to have grasped this obvious food and wine partnering truth. And of course he is absolutely right.

Domaine de Nidoleres Ferme Auberge, Tresserre near Perpignan
Tel: +33 04 68 83 15 14 Call first to check opening times

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