The 2013 and 2012 Northern Rhône Wines

Northern Rhône fans will find two very different vintages in
2013 and 2012. A cool growing season and late harvest yielded nervy, edgy wines
in 2013, while warmer, drier conditions in 2012 resulted in supple, forward reds
and whites that will drink well upon release.

A Contemporary
Perspective

It's hard to believe that not so many years ago most
northern Rhône wines, aside from tiny-production items and bottles from a
handful of cult producers, were languishing on retail shelves, in restaurants'
cellars and on wholesalers' close-out lists. With the exception of a handful of
well-known wines such as Guigal's single-vineyard Côte-Rôties, Chave’s
Hermitage and Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle, these were pretty serious
insider wines. Chapoutier's quality turnaround had kicked into gear, the
situation at Delas had greatly improved, and producers such as Clape, Jamet,
Ogier and Rostaing had built solid reputations and loyal followings, but after
that the bottom dropped precipitously.

Fast forward to the here and now and things have been turned
completely on their head. The asking prices for wines from Jamet and Chave have
gone through the roof, and bottles from extinct northern Rhône domaines like
Gentaz-Dervieux, Raymond Trollat and Noël Verset are regularly commanding up to
a thousand dollars, and that’s if you’re even able to find them in the
secondary market. That’s quite a change from the late 1980s, when I first
started visiting these growers.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1423090413832-COVER+Clape1+-+vinous.JPG"> Part of the Clape family's library of old Cornas

While there’s no single dominant reason for this dramatic
and relatively recent turn of events, I have no doubt that a major factor is
the even more extreme upswing in prices for small-production Burgundies, which
themselves leapt up in response to skyrocketing tariffs for collectible
Bordeaux. In the hearts and minds of most of the world's most serious and
deep-pocketed wine collectors France still rules, and, historically, the
regions that most wine buyers have regarded as France's big dogs are Bordeaux,
Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, the north in particular.

The northern Rhône's historic reputation as one of the
world's premier wine-producing regions is largely attributable to the fame of
Hermitage, whose red wines in particular have been highly collectible for
literally centuries. It's hard to find a book or article on the wines of the
Rhône that doesn't retell the story of Thomas Jefferson visiting Hermitage in 1787
and declaring its white wine "the first wine in the world without
exception" (look, it just happened again!). And Pliny the Elder's writing
on the wines of Vienne (i.e., Côte-Rôtie) in 71 A.D. have been quoted for generations
as well. So it's not as if the region came out of nowhere, like many hot
winegrowing areas that emerged on the scene in the second half of the 20th
century.What kept the wines somewhat under wraps for most mainstream
consumers is the fact that, aroma- and flavor-wise, classic northern Rhône Syrah
and also Marsanne and Roussanne aren't exactly easy to warm up to. Unlike the
fruitier wines made from Pinot Noir or even Syrah's southern counterpart
Grenache, the reds of the northern Rhône showcase wild, even feral qualities like raw, cured
or smoked meats, olive, leather and earth. Plus, the fruit character of
northern Rhône red wines often leans heavily toward dark and even bitter notes
like cherry and blackcurrant, while the wild success of Pinot Noir and
Grenache/Garnacha suggests strongly that for most wine lovers, red berries
rule. 

Aside from Condrieu (made from Viognier), the white wines of
the northern Rhône are equally perplexing to palates attuned to succulent,
juicy Chardonnays and even Rieslings and Sauvignon Blancs, what with their
dried fruit, nut and herb element and often austere dryness. Production from
all of the northern Rhône's wine regions has always been small, which has
limited the wines' reach across markets as well, and this is not going to
change any time soon. Add in the fact that for many years, even decades, most
winemaking in the northern Rhône was rustic and at times downright primitive,
with the expected funky results, and you have a recipe for a vinous no-go zone
for most consumers.The Implications of Modern-Day Winemaking 

The international market's newfound interest in northern
Rhône wines is a direct result of vastly improved--meaning in most cases
modernized and sanitized--winemaking. The same generation of grower/producers
who began to take cellar work seriously applied every bit as much dedication to
vineyard work, bringing the overall standard of soil and vine care to the level
of their colleagues’ efforts in Burgundy and Bordeaux. Those collectors who are
old enough to remember wading through bottle after bottle of questionable Syrah
and Marsanne-based wines in the 1960s, 1970s and most of the 1980s are
downright shocked—pleasantly so—by the number of impeccably made wines the northern
Rhône is producing now.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1423092472424-The+abandoned+railroad+tunnel+that+gives+St%C3%A9phane+Robert%27s+domaine+its+name.JPG"> The
abandoned railroad tunnel that gives Stéphane Robert's domaine its name 

When I made my first visits to these cellars back in June 1989,
the number of must-visits estates was a handful or two. Today, thanks to the
efforts of a newer generation of producers, that number is now in the dozens.
Modern and enlightened farming and winemaking practices have much to do with the
accelerated quality curve, as does the fact that the Rhône Valley, in general,
no longer functions in the relative obscurity than it did in the past. The best
domaines here are now run by worldly, highly educated and curious men and women
whose talent and experience matches that of their colleagues from any region
any region, anywhere in the world.

Moreover, the better producers today are reliable, year in
and out, pretty much regardless of vintage conditions. Consistent quality is
critical for any producer's reputation, and it’s a particular achievement in a
northern continental region such as this one, where weather conditions can
shift wildly from season to season. Simply put, the best winemakers, anywhere,
are skilled enough to make the most of—and overcome the shortcomings of—difficult
vintages as well as to take maximum advantage of the best ones. Nowadays,
making purchasing decisions based more on the winemaker than on the vintage is
as sound a strategy here as it is in Burgundy.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1423090529439-Tasting+at+Paul+Jaboulet+%C3%82ine+in+Tain+l%27Hermitage.JPG"> Bernard Faurie in his tiny cellar in Tournon

The 2013 Growing Season 

Take 2013. Every producer I visited during my trip in
December described the growing season as "difficult," "crazy,"
"stressful" or "unpredictable" courtesy of a cool, rainy
spring that stunted flowering, especially for Viognier. Mildew was an ongoing danger
into the summer, which Stéphane Ogier called "the summer that never
happened," and Jacques Desnervois of Jaboulet described as “just an
extension of spring, so the longest spring ever." The cool spring had less
ill effect on Syrah than on the white grapes, and Syrah yields were normal for
most growers I visited. But getting the fruit to mature was a challenge, and
harvesting late was essential if growers were to have sufficiently ripe fruit
to support the firm acidity levels.

As it turned out, the 2013 harvest was one of the latest in
the region's history, according to most of the producers I visited, with
picking often going to the second week of October. Alexis Gerin called it
"a waiting game" and Agnès Levet said her family commenced their
harvest at Côte-Rôtie on the 1st of October and wrapped up the on 14th,
"luckily with no weather issues at all during the two weeks we
picked." The resulting wines are generally fresh and lively, with an
emphasis on red fruits. Tannin levels seem to be sound but perhaps not high
enough to support long-term cellaring. Fans of nervy, concentrated (thanks to
the low yields) white Rhône wines will be thrilled with what was possible in 2013
but they'll have to move fast to secure what they can from a production that's
severely down from normal levels.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1423090803977-E.+Guigal+in+C%C3%B4te-R%C3%B4tie.JPG"> E. Guigal in Côte-Rôtie 

The 2012 Growing Season

As for 2012, growers enjoyed another healthy crop that
pretty much matched the yields of 2013. While the spring of '12 was cool and
damp as in 2013, with the same risk of mildew, summer actually happened and the
soils dried up. The vineyards enjoyed a warm, dry stretch from early July
through a leisurely harvest that began in mid-September and lasted until the
first week of October under fine conditions.

I'm finding the 2012 red wines to be quite agreeable
already, with plenty of upfront fruit and good depth, fairly easygoing tannins
and, in many cases, early aromatic complexity. Since the grapes were generally
riper—not to mention larger—in 2012 than in 2013, the wines have more supple tannins
and are, simply put, juicier and rounder, with gentler acidity and slightly
darker fruit character. While their generally forward fruit character makes
them good choices for early drinking (restaurant alert!), the best wines also
appear to possess the requisite concentration for at least mid-term aging.
Vintages that were initially dismissed as meager and meant for early
consumption like 1996, 1997, 2004, 2006 and 2007 have provided some truly
memorable bottles for me in recent years and I suspect that 2012 (and 2011,
while we're at it) will do the same.

The 2012 whites tend to be quite attractive right now, rounder
than the ‘13s and showing less citrus and mineral character. Wine lovers who
enjoy the supple orchard and pit fruit-dominated style of Rhône whites have
many good options. While acidity levels seem sound enough to support aging over
the short to medium term, I'd be inclined to err on the young side and start in
on these wines now or in the next year or two and then decide which to hold and
which to drink up.

I tasted the vast majority of these wines in the Rhône in
December and followed up with more tastings of finished wines in New York in
January.--Josh Raynolds

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