Southern Rhône Valley Trip – Day one, part two

Winemaker Philippe Amphoux

Chusclan is ‘my’ Rhone village. I feel like I’ve lived there 40 years. In fact I’ve only ever visited for an hour or two every year … but for 40 years! The sole producer here – the great village co-operative cellar – is not beautiful. Nor are all its wines wonderful. But having started with the present Cellar President Rivier’s grandfather, I do feel part of the family. And get received like one.

Sometimes now, I feel like a right grandad myself.  My young people doing all the tasting and dealing with their young people. I’m here for what?  Answer: to be photo’d!

So it was rejuvenating to recognise a face from the old days backing his trailer of grapes up to receival. André Chinieu, now ‘retired’, was President Rivier of this group of growers most of the years we’ve worked here. We got on well. So well, he allowed me to bring in my own winemaker, the much missed André Roux. André was allowed to come into the cellar every harvest, pinch all the best fruit and make wines just for Laithwaites.

Winemaker Philippe with Presidents old and new

André C looked fit, tanned and not a day older – working in vineyards is a better lifestyle than working at a keyboard I tell you. He works for his son now. As I expect I will soon.

André R is retired, living in Paris and frankly, since then we’ve found it hard to keep up his standards at the cellar. All agree he had a genius for picking out the best grapes. Becca solved our post-Roux dilemma by electing to ignore most of the village’s crop and just go for the small vineyards around the old fortress of Gicon which towers high over the village.

The Chusclan Cellar bought these ruins about the time I first started visiting. But until today I’d never bothered to go up there. It was a bloody steep climb. For what? I’d seen his ruins before.

But I should’ve listened harder. The Cellar not only got students from around the world to come every summer and put the old place back together, they also replanted the abandoned vineyards up there. These were given to several young farmers. Those vineyards are now nice and mature and their altitude gives their grapes an extra fruit quality vines down on the valley floor sometimes lack.  Becca got them to blend us a couple of wines solely from up there.

So today we knocked the bottom out of our hire car getting up that very rough stone track to meet with the President and all his men in the just-opened, refurbished, solar-powered Great Hall of Gicon. They’d lugged up wines and picnic. It wasn’t a business meeting. It was celebration and reminiscing. The current President yet again telling how his rather severe grandfather said to everyone as the long-haired hippy Tony drove off with a van full of their wine … on tick: “we’ll never see him again!”. How we laughed!

Young Becca put up with it all bravely.

They say they will soon find a guardian for the Fort and then tarmac the road. Maybe offer meals … and wine tastings. I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, just try the wines.