La Tour du Rhône - Day 3

Wednesday 30th September. Cornas and Hermitage.

It is becoming clear that 2008 is a "granite year". The well drained granite slopes of Cornas and the heavily granitic parts of Hermitage have produced the vintage's top performers so far.

At our first visit Jean Louis Chave discusses with us the paradox of the hot sunny vintages that produce big alcoholic, critically acclaimed wines and the cooler, sometimes more difficult vintages that produce lower alcohol wines that are the ones you actually want to drink. 2008 whites here are stunning, the most magical we have tasted yet, his reds are pretty smart too. All purity and vivacity, no big blockbusters.

Up the treacherous Cornas slopes to Allemand's cellars . As Thierry puts it " Cornas is great in a little vintage". A heavy selection has been made in 2008 resulting in yields of 20 hl / ha, about 9 hl / ha less than usual. All cuvees will be blended into one wine. It was typically inky in colour but more generous and smoother than usual, and very sensual. It does however still show a good bit of backbone and mineral intensity. Bravo!

At Chapoutier the stand out wine is l'Ermite white, which further confirms how extremely good some of the whites are in this vintage. The red l'Ermite is quite useful too - it is certainly the pick of their reds.

We leave plenty of time for our last visit - the excitable Mathieu Barret of Domaine du Coulet can talk the hind leg off a donkey. We taste whilst admiring his new cement eggs, ala Pontet Canet - fermentation vessels that make very precise wines. "Ah we are in Burgundy" he says of the first 08 barrel. Certainly true aromatically but there is more grip here than you would find further north. There will be only one Cornas bottling this year. It is impressive and certainly surpasses the general quality of this vintage. As successful as Allemand, perhaps a shade better. We re-taste his 07s which are even more stunning than from barrel. This domaine goes from strength to strength, and it will soon be considered one of the greats of the Rhone, not just of Cornas.

Tomorrow more Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, then onto Cote Rotie.