- Headline: Promising vintage in Rhône Valley
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| Le Prince de Courthézon with its prized customer awards |
Up
early to Nyons for a croissant and coffee. Market day. Then across to
Courthézon and the Cellier de Princes, the brilliant co-operative cellar
of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Great welcome (due probably to our customers'
great enthusiasm for their wines; we seem now to be their most important
customer).
I
learnt the wine trade in a French co-operative cellar. And I've bought
wine from a hundred or more. If it’s well-run, a cave co-op is
unbeatable on quality/price. But getting French wine farmers to
co-operate is bloody hard work in this land of rabid individualists. Few
can do it. However, Jocelyn Bressy has managed it here. So much so
that the cellar is attracting new members from across the whole region:
something almost unheard-of in this day and age. He has a brilliant
young winemaker in Thierry Ferlay.
We
watch fruit arriving. We go and have a look at an estate called
Escondudes (meaning 'the hidden-one' – and it sure is hidden. Those
terrible tracks; Avis are going to get their car back in bits! But a
sweet old vineyard and a couple of sweet old guys.
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| Ali has been weeding here for 40 years |
Monsieur
Ali has tended these acres since he arrived in France 40 years ago. He
looks terrific on it. Gave us lovely ripe figs too, from a tree on the
boundary with the next vineyard which belongs to the v grand estate of
Vieux Télégraph. (Presumably called that because this would be a
terrific spot to semaphore from; on a clear day you can see way beyond
Avignon, almost to the sea).
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| Thierry Ferlay takes Becca to see his Châteauneuf Escondudes vines - view is south past Avignon |
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