Tag Archives: Roussanne

Is Clairette the Future of Whites in the Southern Rhone?

Posted on by
Reply

Visiting producers in the Southern Rhône, the rising level of alcohol is a constant refrain. The wines of the south have always been powerful, of course, but it’s a new situation to have reds based on Grenache often reaching 15% alcohol or more, and whites often enough over 14%. Reactions among producers vary. Some take it in their stride. “With regards to alcohol we have harvested earlier than we used to, typically harvest has moved from September 20 to September 2, but maturity is the same. So we don’t consider too high alcohol to be a problem,” says Daniel Brunier at Vieux Télégraphe. Others are less sanguine. “You cannot trust Grenache now, it is minimum 15% alcohol,” says Jean-Michel Vache at Les Clos de Cazaux.

The most common response to rising alcohol in reds is to replant with Syrah as Grenache vineyards need to be replaced, or to go back to older varieties that previously were replaced with Grenache to get more flavor and color. But now there is something of a feeling that the move to Syrah has gone far enough. Jean-Michel is sceptical about other favored replacement varieties: “Counoise and Cinsault are good for rosé or rather light Côtes du Rhône,” he says. There is also a move to go back to the old practice of including some white grapes in the red cuvées.

The other transition is to move from black to white varieties. In my visits last week, several producers apologized that they could not show their white wine, because it had all sold out and the new vintage was not ready yet. With warmer temperatures encouraging a move to white wines, this is suggestive that climate change is creating demand that exceeds supply for whites, but producers are a bit nervous whether the trend will be sustained. The story you hear is not only that whites are replacing blacks, but that there’s a shift in white varieties towards those such as Clairette, which tend to have lower alcohol.

Gigondas AOP has decided that Clairette is the grape of the future in the south. Until the 2023 vintage, Gigondas has been restricted to red and rosé, but in 2012 the producers applied to have white added, and now the application has finally been granted. The unusual feature is a requirement that the assemblage should be at least 70% Clairette. “Clairette grown on sand and limestone has very specific typicity,” says Jean-Marie Amadieu at Pierre Amadieu. “There isn’t any typicity for Southern Rhône whites, except for the power of Châteauneuf du Pape. But when you taste a Clairette from this terroir, you know you are in Gigondas. And Clairette is very well adapted to resist global warming.”

There have been varietal cuvées from Clairette, or cuvées dominated by Clairette from Gigondas, for a while, but they have had to be labeled as Côtes du Rhône. This has led to a curious discordancy that for producers who have vineyards in, say, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, and Côtes du Rhône, their best white might actually have the least prestigious AOP label. That has made some of the Côtes du  Rhône whites a bit of a bargain. That may stop now that they will be labeled as Gigondas. At the present there are only about 16 ha of white varieties in Gigondas (although that is more than the area devoted to production of rosé), representing around 30 producers. The AOP’s target is to bring white production up to 15%  of total over five years.

Conventional wisdom is that there are two problems with Clairette: it tends to very high production; and acidity is low. This may not necessarily be true. “When you read the book about Clairette, it’s always written, high alcohol, low acidity, but I don’t think they were harvesting at the correct  time,” says Jean-Michel Vache. “Clairette is good but tends to high yields – you can easily get 100 hl/ha. You really have to work at it to keep yields down. We keep yields down for Clairette by two Spring prunings and a green harvest.”

“Clairette doesn’t have much acidity, and I was shocked when I saw the technical analysis of acidity, but it has freshness. I really like it,” says Corinna Faravel at La Martinelle in Ventoux. I tasted several varietal or near-varietal Clairettes during a week of visits in the Southern Rhône and I was struck by the lightness and freshness of the wines; and the alcohol levels around 12.5%, as noted in the tasting notes below, speak for themselves. These wines are a far cry from the old phenolic heaviness of whites of the area, although it’s too early to tell whether Gigondas has made an innovation that will spread.

The problem with trying to respond to climate change by changing the varieties are that are planted is that it’s a slow process. To plant a different variety requires finding a plot with appropriate terroir that needs to be replanted, or taking the risk of abandoning a currently productive plot. The replanted plot can’t make wine for 3 years, and probably won’t make really good wine for a few years after that. Trying to find selections or clones of the same variety that produce less alcohol is an even slower process – typically around 20 years. But do we have that much time?

Although you keep hearing that Grenache is being supplanted by other black varieties, and that black varieties are being replaced by whites, the figures for planted varieties actually show little change. In 2008, black varieties were 89.3% of plantings, including Grenache at 72% of total (80% of black varieties). Today black varieties are at 87.9%, including Grenache at 69% (76% of black varieties). Among the whites, proportions of varieties have not changed much, with Grenache Blanc and Clairette each close to one third, and Roussanne and Bourboulenc each close to 15%, although Roussanne has increased and Bourboulenc has decreased. This has not even kept pace with the rate of climate change let alone got ahead of it. More aggressive action is needed: but what?

Tasting Notes

La Martinelle, IGP Vaucluse, 2022  (Clairette 90%, Grenache Blanc 10%)
Fresh aromatics with some cereal notes. Spiciness comes to the fore on the palate and nicely offsets impressions of creaminess. Pressed straight off the skins with no maceration. Aged half in barrels and half in stainless steel, but feels like it has more oak exposure. Some heat on the finish. 12.5%   88.

Pierre Amadieu, Côtes du Rhône, Domaine Grand Romane 2022  (Clairette 100%)
The nose is just slightly appley. My companion, the Anima Figure, sees it as representing the garrigue. Fresh impression with balanced acidity, flavorful on palate with savory impressions in the background. Still young and tight, should open out in a few months. Light, airy impressions, with perhaps a touch of salinity. 12.5%   88.

Domaine Le Clos des Cazaux, Vacqueyras, Clairette Centenaire, 2019 

As the name indicates, this is a varietal wine from 100-year old vines. Slightly nutty, slightly savory, nose, leading to palate offering an impression of completeness. Lovely balance with only hints of phenolic aromatics, and a smooth, silky texture. A wine with subtlety, concentration, and intensity.    89 

A Fascinating Visit to Domaine Bernard Gripa

Posted on by
Reply

A visit to Domaine Bernard Gripa was a revelation about the movement to finesse in St. Joseph, as much for whites as for reds. Gripa is one of the old-line domains in Mauves, in the heart of the St. Joseph appellation. “I’m Fabrice, Bernard’s son,” says Fabrice Gripa when I arrive, “I took over the domain in 1993, now I’m the winemaker and manager (and owner). My family has been in France since the seventeenth century, and involved in wine since then; my grandfather made some wine, but mostly sold in bulk, as glass was expensive and he bottled wine only on special demand. My father started bottling in 1974 and since then we have bottled everything.” The address of the domain is in the main street through Mauves, but in fact the premises–an old building and caves–are round the back and quite extensive.

The domain is just behind the main street through Mauves.

Vineyards are half red and half white, all in St. Joseph except for 5 ha of white in St. Péray. “All our St. Joseph plots are in the “berceau” (the heart of St. Joseph),” Fabrice says, “divided between Mauves and Tournon.” Winemaking is traditional. “We are quite classical, there’s really no innovation here.” In each appellation, there are two cuvées, a general blend, and a selection from the best plots (called Le Berceau for St. Joseph in both red and white). The first new cuvée was introduced in 2016, Le Paradis from St. Joseph. “I planted the vineyard 20 years ago and now it’s good enough to be made alone,” Fabrice says.

Whites are an unusually high proportion of production here. Fabrice is interesting about them. “White is a novelty in this area, until recently it was 99% red. The whites used to be powerful. People here like whites that are quite massive, they don’t like acidity. Even now if you try to use a northern vineyard for whites, people don’t like it, they think it has too much acidity. The difficulty with Marsanne is that it needs oxidation, but it becomes over-oaked quite easily. There was no experience with Roussanne until the recent replanting. Then it was trial by mistake.”

“In the 1990s, the most important thing for reds was to be big and concentrated. Everyone was taking grapes off to get down to 35 hl/ha. They made the whites the same way, so the whites were very strong and powerful. It works in Hermitage because the terroir compensates, but in St. Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage, the wines were heavy. When I grew up, whites were heavy and bitter, and made for aging. It’s very easy to put wine into new barrels for two years and then to sell it, but to find the right balance of oak and aging is more difficult.” Gripa’s whites age in barriques or demi-muids with 10-15% new oak.

“The big difference between St. Péray and St. Joseph is of course the soils, the climate is similar, but there’s granite in St. Joseph,” Fabrice explains. The white St. Joseph is 70% Marsanne with 30% Roussanne and is quite aromatic. The Berceau cuvée comes from a single vineyard of 100% Marsanne and is correspondingly more powerful. If you drink the whites young, open a few hours ahead. In St. Péray, Les Pins is 70% Marsanne and 30% Roussanne, while Les Figuiers is 60% Roussanne and 40% Marsanne, and includes old vines. Usually at 3-5 years the fruits become less obvious, and savory almost herbal notes appear, a bit sooner for a hot vintage, a bit later for a cool vintage. “4-5 years is the best time to drink the white,” Fabrice says, but then he pulls out some older vintages. After ten years, the aromatics have changed completely, from fruity to savory. The revelation is a 20-year old St. Péray, all full of savory flavors. It is fair to say that Les Figuiers is the most elegant wine I have had from St. Péray.

By contrast with the whites, Fabrice prefers the reds younger. “The Syrah with Hermitage has a stage when it goes down quite low, but then it comes back. St. Joseph stays down. I prefer the St. Joseph between 4 and 5 years, I find Syrah less interesting after 10 years than earlier.” The St. Joseph red can be quite stern and tannic on release, but after 3-4 years becomes more fragrant, mineral, and precise. Le Berceau comes from a plot of vines first planted in 1920 in the St. Joseph lieu-dit. Its richer, deeper, more concentrated fruits make the tannins less obvious even though the wine is more intense. It can veer from overtly powerful in hot vintages to relatively fresh in cool vintages.

Le Paradis is a selection from a 2 ha plot­–the rest goes into the St. Joseph blend–and there are only 2,000 bottles. It spends a year in demi-muids with 25% new oak, followed by a year in 4-5-year barriques, and is very fine, with a great sense of precision and tension. Its silky tannins show all the tautness of granite. “Most of the reds of Tournon are powerful,” Fabrice says, “and I wanted to change tradition with this terroir, which is really different.”

Hearing Fabrice’s thoughtful analysis of the reds and whites, not to mention tasting the range through both young and old vintages, made this one of my most interesting visits to the Northern Rhône last week.