Wine Tasting in the Rhône

We’ve just arrived home after 2 weeks in the UK celebrating hubby Nigel’s 60th Birthday which included the West Coast of Scotland for our “seafood by the loch” fix; a Family Treasure Hunt across the North Yorkshire Moors ending with Fish & Chips at the world famous Magpie Café in Whitby and an improbably rowdy dressing up Dinner Party with an Orient Express theme.

The last leg of our mammoth drive was an opportunity to visit a couple of Wine Suppliers en-route and to, hopefully, put the finishing touches to our new Wine List. The story of our fascinating finds in Champagne are detailed on my Blog on our very own website www.finewineworks.com but here I thought I’d share the story of our overnight in the Southern Rhône. I’d tasted the Séguret wines from Domaine de Mourchon before and knew that it was an English family who had been running the property, and indeed putting it firmly on the map, since 1998 but I had no real idea that I would stumble upon such a slick and well organised operation. Also that it would be located somewhere so stupidly idyllic and breathtakingly beautiful. The backdrop is the dramatic Mont Ventoux – snow capped for ¾ of the year, and also the pretty lace-like jagged points of the Dentelles de Montmirail. The gnarled clumps of old Grenache and Syrah vines stretch out in a dramatic panorama from the Domaine itself.

Walter McKinlay and family have re-built the main property into a stunningly picturesque mini – Chateau and put in an all new Cave & Cellar. The previous owners had only used the grapes from the Domaine but never vinified on site. Any winemakers dream would be to start with a blank canvas when designing a winery – more often than not, one is obliged to add on, bolt along side and generally work round an existing layout. By digging into the hillside and designing a perfectly sensible & practical gravity focussed arrangement of fermentation and maturation tanks, the process is simplified and indeed, when being given the humorous and informative tour of the place by Walter and his son in law, Hugo, the whole process of turning grapes into wine suddenly comes alive and real. Certainly for Nigel, who is shortly to embark on his Wine & Spirit Education Trust Intermediate Level 2 course with Fine Wine Works and some Yacht Crew and fellow keen enthusiasts, this made all the Study Guide dry explanations and confusing diagrams of the process make utter sense. So compact and well laid out is the winery, I have discussed the possibility with the McKinlays of bringing interested Wine Tourists, Wine Students and even pleasure mad Gourmands over to the Domaine in the future. Particularly as they’ve just finished building a Gite next door which would sleep 10! If that’s whetted your appetite, take a look at www.domainedemourchon.com

Now on to the wines themselves: not for the faint hearted – these are blockbuster big, powerful reds, beloved and adored by the likes of Wine Guru & Critic, Robert Parker. For example the Grande Reserve is made solely from the best and oldest Grenache and Syrah vines on the estate. Half of the production is gently aged in one or two year old oak barrels to give richly complex and characterful wines, more reminiscent of a great Chateauneuf du Pape than a Cotes du Rhône Village! Heaps of garrigue and spice, earthy tannins and deep black cherry and bramble fruit. The 2007 vintage in the Rhone was outstanding and if you can lay your paws on any of these exceptionally good value wines, I would say they will drink well for at least another decade. The bigger still, 100% Grenache Family Reserve is only made in exceptional vintages and the 2007 has just been released. Dense purple hue and a big, sweet and heady bouquet of kirsch, lavender, pepper and liquorice and a little bit of smoke on the finish. Gorgeously textured and full bodied. I must point out though, in case anyone starts thinking these wine tasting trips are pure hedonism…..this tasting took place at 9.00am last Wednesday morning and I don’t think my teeth have quite recovered yet!

We’re hoping to bring at least one of the Mourchon wines into the fold shortly – even though our mission is to find as many good value and delicious non – French wines as possible for our list, it would be unfair of me to exclude these gems from you all. In the meantime, Walter has let me have a few bottles so I can showcase them at some of our forthcoming Wine Events and Tastings. Hope to share some of them with you soon!!

Helen Brotherton

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