Vintage Report: René Rostaing’s 2012s.

Producing some of the very finest wines from the Rhône valley, René Rostaing, winemaking for 43 years has acquired star status. He very generously spent some time with us to talk about his views on the most recent vintage and gave us an insight into his wines.

What has 2012 been like in the Rhône?

- Rhône 2012 from the very beginning looked like another classic vintage. After a normal summer, without any excessive heat, we harvested around the 20th September. The ripeness was even throughout thanks to low yields (around -20%), not to mention the berries were healthy as well. We had good weather conditions with only one day of rain that didn’t impact the grapes.

What were you most pleased about in 2012?

- All the grapes enjoyed the same conditions equally and reached the optimum of their potential.

What are the characteristics of this vintage?

- The wines are at first noticeable by their fruit which is strong and round. They are tasty and generous in aromas and lead to a lovely freshness towards the end. But let’s be patient! The wine in its first two years is ‘in process’ and its evolution is sometimes hard to predict. Today, the bright fruit is the dominant characteristic.  Age will certainly bring some structure and austerity as the wine closes down after a couple of years in bottle. It’s an evolution that I have witnessed many times.

Were there any other vintages that you can compare 2012 to?

- More than any other year, 2012 has its own personality. I do not remember any vintage this pronounced in terms of fruit expression and freshness. Tasting it is currently really enjoyable and I think the balance showing now is promising.

Cornas news - Harvest complete.

A further installment from the delightful Matthieu Barret at Domaine du Coulet. It would seem, with the exception of the painfully low yields this year, things are looking good in 2010...

"Hello all,

I was not able to write to you as regularly as I wanted to keep you informed about the harvest in 2010.

We have been cutting grapes for the last three weeks with a small team of 10 people. The harvest is healthy and ripe and over the third week we collected grapes with a very big phenolic maturity. This last week, we harvested the summit of our mountain (which is the base of Billes Noires) and the East hillsides (which is one of the bases of Terrasses du Serre).

I ‘ve decided not to make any “Gore” cuvee but a “big” Billes Noires

in 2010 which will be, in my opinion, a great vintage of elegance and fruit in the spirit of the 2007.

We brought in 11 plots which oscillate between 12.7 and 13.9 % of potential alcohol. The yield per hectare is close to 15 hl which is a little bit frustrating as it is way too low! This is the third vintage in a row, below our technical objectives which are 20 hl / ha (which is not very pretentious…).

This week we shall begin to draw off the first tanks for the first press - always good moments to share.

Our grape-pickers' team made a beautiful sorting with

a lot of precision, which allowed us to vinify almost all the tanks without SO2.

I enclose two or three photos of the grape harvests to make you share these beautiful moments in the life of the estate.

See you soon,

Matthieu"