In Vino Valréas

 

There was a time when I was still teaching, without a thought that I might one day write about wine, that we would spend most of our six-week summer holiday in a campsite in a pine forest at Faucon just to the north of Vaison la Romaine.

We fell in love with the area – the villages, the smell of lavender and thyme, the countryside around the Ventoux and Les Dentelles de Montmirail and, of course, the wines. Our stay in the campsite was bien arrosé – mais avec modération, bien entendu ! Our everyday wine, red Côtes du Rhône came in a cubi from the nearby Cave Co-opérative de Puyméras. In addition we visited and bought from producers in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and Côtes-du-Rhône.

Indeed before we bought our shared house in Touraine we considered buying a place in the Vaucluse. However, houses in the area was already expensive to buy and in those days there were no low-cost airlines or TGV to Avignon, so the Vaucluse was neither affordable or practical being too far from London.

Sadly since 1987 my visits to the area have been rare – just a few press trips including a memorable Rasteau and truffle weekend. Kindly invited by Valréas to participate in their In Vino Valréas, my three-night stay in Valréas has brought back memories. It would be good to return to the area and spend more time.

In Vino Valréas is part of the Valréas 2021 programme.

Emmanuel Bouchard, président du syndicat des vignerons de Valréas

Valréas 2021 is an operation to both persuade the vignerons of this Côtes du Rhône Villages to work more closely together as well as promoting the wines so that they become better known. Initially it was intended that Valréas 2021 would see the wines of Valréas promoted to a Rhône cru like Gigondas or Vacqueyras but as only 10% of the production here is sold under the appellation Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Valréas, there wasn’t huge enthusiasm for trying to become a cru.

Instead the vignerons have commissioned a report on the village’s terroir and one on looking at the words professional tasters use to describe the wines of Valréas. Friday (13th) saw the third activity of the project – trying a find ways of describing these wines avoiding the traditional terms used in tasting. It was also the opportunity to report on the studies on the terroir and tasting words.

The tasting sheet

During the morning we tasted blind some twenty or so wines. The novel idea was to try to find a new vocabulary to describe the wines using a number of scales. For example: ‘Echelle d’élégance: de la bure de moine à la robe Christian Dior’, ‘Echelle de persistence: du culcul printanier à une symphonie de Beethoven’ or ‘de la cabane en bois au Château de Chambord’. This was an interesting and challenging idea but the exercise took longer than the organisers estimated as we needed time for us tasters to get our heads around the idea. As this was not a competition or an attempt to select the best wines it was good to be able to discuss the wines in some depth as we struggled to find an appropriate building, animal, piece of music etc. that fitted each wine.

There may have been too many scales. It will be interesting to see the results but whether consumers will find wines likened to Dior’s little black dress, a sheep or a rhino, structured like an Hôtel de Ville or with the persistence of a Jimi Hendrix solo useful is quite another matter. I fancy this exercise may have more resonance in France than in the UK, for instance. We tasted seven whites and around ten reds. Although both the whites and the reds varied considerably in style, they all had a consistent freshness even if sometimes the alcohol levels were high. The wines had a persistent freshness that stopped the wines from being heavy and encouraged you to take another sip. The afternoon was devoted to a presentation of the two reports commissioned as part of Valréas 2021 – the first into the terroir (five different terroirs were identified) and the second on trying to identify the traditional tasting terms that best describe the wines of this Rhône-Village.

Unfortunately the organisers of the event hadn’t realized the importance these days of providing good internet access, so that those attending can quickly share news and impressions of the event. I spent a frustrating and wasteful time attempting to connect. If one of the objectives of the 2021 project is to give the wines of Valréas greater visibility, then  this was a partially missed opportunity.

Different types of truffle

Saturday morning we went to the last truffle market of the 2014-2015 season at Richerenches. I have been to this market once before back in mid-January 2006 when I was on a memorably indulgent Rasteau et truffes press trip.

The view from the ridge by the Mas de Sainte Croix

Early spring blossom @Sainte Croix

Jacques Coipel, Mas de Sainte Croix

The afternoon was spent visiting three domaines – Grands Devers, Mas de Sainte Croix and Domaine Mireille et Vincent, which was founded by Bernard Bizard in 1985. I was particularly impressed by the range of wines, both white and red, from Sainte-Croix along with the 2005 from the Bizard family.

Bernard Bizard – I really liked his 2005 red

I spent three very enjoyable nights at the Maison d’Anvers (Antwerp in English) run by Sigi and Vanessa, who have made a very similar journey as Vincent ‘Le Cuisinier de Campagne’ and Olivia Simon in Bourgueil. Both Sigi and Vincent had successful restaurants in Belgium before deciding that it was time for a change of scene. Both chefs place a real accent on fresh food and both are passionate about wine. Vincent has vines on his property, while Sigi and Vanessa have vines right to the entrance to La Maison d’Anvers.

 

I had two excellent meals cooked by Sigi and Vanessa. Sigi is mainly responsible for the first and main course, while Vanessa takes charge of the desserts. On Thursday night I started with a lovely dish of Coquilles Saint Jacques very tasty and perfectly cooked. An equally delicious supreme of pintade with mushrooms followed. The meal finished with a delicate lemon cream.

Sigi et la Côte

The highlight of Saturday night was the magnificent Côte de Boeuf grilled to perfection over sarments de vignes by Sigi. He has ordered a Josper grill/oven, the Rolls Royce of its kind and is waiting impatiently for it to be installed in May.

 Yum!