2000 Rasteau Vieilles Vignes

To maintain his high quality standards, Michel Tardieux000D will introduce a second label, Les Grandes Bastides, beginning with the 2002x000D vintage. Wines destined to be bottledx000D under the Tardieu-Laurent label will be aged entirely in his partner Dominiquex000D Laurent's "magic casks," which Laurent fashions from extra-thickx000D Troncais oak staves. But in thex000D difficult 2002 vintage, Tardieu told me, all the wines from the Southern Rhonex000D will be declassified into the second label. I was shocked by how well the 2001s showed just a few weeks after the mise;x000D in addition to making minimal use of SO2 and maximum use of hisx000D wines' lees, Tardieu obviously does a very gentle bottling. Tardieu told me the concentration of thex000D 2001 fruit in the South came via heat and wind, as the mistral blew during muchx000D of the first three weeks of September; in the cooler North, phenolic maturityx000D was slower to come. These are wines tox000D seek out.

Just as there are a number of dynamic Burgundy negociants who offer fresher, stronger bottles than the growers from whom they purchase fruit or wine, Michel Tardieu makes Rhone Valley wines that often seem to transcend their appellations. He has produced a host of spectacular cuvees in 2000 and 1999. Tardieu, who recently purchased a climate-controlled facility in a new housing development in Lourmarin, is widely regarded as an astute selector of wine from top sources up and down the Rhone Valley, and his elevage is simply more sophisticated than that of most small domains. His range of 2000s closely tracks the vintage in that his wines from the South are denser and more powerful than those from the North. "Vintage 2000 required very strict selection in the North," Tardieu admitted, adding that although wines in the South reached very high alcohol levels, those made from young vines can lack flesh. But Tardieu works with a very high percentage of moderately old or downright ancient vines.