2006 Saint-Péray Les Pins

"Marsanne is completely misunderstood," Fabrice Gripa told me. "If you catch it at about 6 years old it is oxidative and seems dead, but if you come back in 15 or so years you'll find remarkable mineral complexity." The variety can also be a problem "because it can be really hard, so it's like tasting rocks. That's why we use roussanne to add roundness and sweetness." Gripa admitted that he was not a big fan of the red wines in the 2005 vintage. "They will need a lot of time to be enjoyable, but everybody wants them." Warming to the subject he opined that "there are two kinds of wine in the world today: wines that are drunk and wines that become trophies-collectors either just look at the bottles or drink them with 18 other people." He calls 2006 a "soft and elegant vintage, but with very good concentration and a softness like pinot noir."