It’s hard for established wine regions to garner excitement for their trade tastings, year in, year out, so bravo to the Rhône for looking to shake things up at its recent All You Need is Rhône event at Soho’s Vinyl Factory, using rock music as the unifying theme, in a format that had already been successfully trialled in Paris and Brussels.
All 17 crus were represented at All You Need Is Rhône - the first time it's happened in London
On November 12, the All You Need is Rhône tour reached London. For the first time, all 17 Rhône crus (plus Eaux de Vie) were present at a tasting in London. There were elements that you would expect from a trade tasting: producers pouring their wines, masterclasses from regional expert Matt Walls. And others that you wouldn’t: the rock’n’roll theme, with producers looking the part; and an evening consumer event featuring a live band, a rock music-and-wine matching masterclass and a Rhône wine bar.
Each of the crus was represented by two producer ambassadors, who poured their wines, supported by a musical reference. So, the southern Cru of Cairanne was paired with the electro-pop of Depeche Mode, while Cornas, in the north was allied with classic rockers, Led Zeppelin.
Anthony Taylor of Gabriel Meffre’s Domaine du Longue Toque and Henri-Claude Amadieu of Domaine Pierre Amadieu, both representing Gigondas, went all in on the rock vibe, with Amadieu remaining resolutely in character, even during a masterclass appearance.
Henri-Claude Amadieu co-hosts a masterclass in costume as Matt Walls tries to keep a straight face
Matt Walls’ masterclasses shone the spotlight on two different aspects of the region’s wines:
At Rhône Underground the focus was the varied geologies of the Rhône Valley, from the granite and schist of the north to the sand, limestone and rolled river stones (galets roulés) of the south. These differences were illuminated by wines from each terroir, highlighting the influence of what lies beneath on what we taste in the glass.
Band vs Solo picked up on the musical theme. Just as in music where there are solo and group acts, Walls used that idea as a lens to explore the crus of the Rhône in an original way: single varieties vs. blends, individual winemakers vs. co-ops, one maturation vessel vs. multiple, etc.
"Our heart is in the Rhône valley. We want to focus on that, so we might drop some of the projects outside the Rhône valley." Maxime Chapouiter talks to Heather Dougherty about the Rhône's future.
Chapoutier’s future vision
I also took the opportunity during the day to catch up with Maxime Chapoutier, now production manager at M. Chapoutier, the high-profile producer and negociant brought to prominence largely due to the work of his father, Michel.
Maxime is feeling optimistic about the future for Rhône wines, largely down to two factors. First there is the emergence of a new generation of winemakers who are enthusiastic, collaborative and often well-travelled, bringing back new thinking and new techniques.
Secondly there is a positive movement in terms of style. I’ve heard from other winemakers previously what a watershed moment 2015 was. It was hailed at the time as a great vintage, but Maxime, and others, felt that with hindsight, southern Rhône wines were becoming too powerful and too alcoholic. Now people are moving to winemaking techniques that are more of an infusion, rather than all out extraction and are also more vigilant about the level of alcohol.
The future is white
White wines figure prominently in Maxime’s vision of where the Rhône is, and needs to be, heading. He says that at Chapoutier “We have always been big believers in whites. We are one of the biggest producers of whites in the northern Rhône, so for us it’s the future of the north.”
As well as aligning more closely with wine drinkers’ preferences, he believes that whites are well adapted to the challenges of climate change – especially as it’s possible to harvest them earlier without affecting quality.
Yet white wines remain a minority interest in the Rhône, at just 12% of overall production across the region’s appellations. Maxime believes that the region’s biggest challenge will be this switch from red to white production. “We don’t have enough white at the moment so need to restructure the vineyards.”
Global warming is not a future threat for the Rhône but something that is very much in the ‘here and now’. Maxime shows, though, that winemakers are already adapting to what is becoming the new normal, contrasting how in recent hot years such as 2022, they already knew that they would have to soften extraction to make attractive wines in those conditions. Compare that to 2003, the first shock hot year, where jammy, overly alcoholic wines were all too common.
"We are one of the biggest producers of whites in the northern Rhône, so for us it’s the future of the north.” – Maxime Chapoutier.
Quality at every price point
The Chapoutier name is synonymous not just with iconic bottlings of Hermitage and other rare and expensive Rhône wines, but with many wines at just about every price point. I asked Maxime where this focus on delivering quality at every level came from.
“Michel [Chapoutier] told me that when he bought back the company from his father, he had lots of debt. So, the first mission wasn’t to make great wine, it was to make good wine that was good value. So, of course, we do some very high-end wines, but it’s very important to demystify what wine is… it’s just a drink.”
Maxime’s father Michel Chapoutier is famous, not just as a big beast of the Rhône valley from north to south, but for his globe-trotting wine projects elsewhere. Maxime, however, signalled a change of focus for the future of the family business.
“For us it was amazing to work on all these projects – we challenged ourselves with new climates, new grape varieties – but our heart and our story is in the Rhône valley. We want to focus now on that, so we might drop some of the projects outside the Rhône valley and only focus on [there] in future.”
As the trade and press portion of the event drew to a close, the mood changed as a queue formed, ready for the consumer tasting in the evening.In conjunction with music events company Sofar, the organisers welcomed a large and enthusiastic crowd of young Londoners. After the opportunity to sample wines from all 17 crus, the volume was turned up as Colin Thorne of Vagabond Wines hosted a wine and music pairing masterclass and indie band Adult Leisure headlined the evening.
