Up and down the Rhône

We dined in style on Thursday with Helen Savage, whose series of "wine dinners" (dinners with wine or tastings with dinner?) had reached The Best of the New in the Southern Rhône Valley. We like Rhône and drink a fair amount of it, so this topic stood out for us among Helen's autumn season. As it turns out, although the wines had been selected to showcase the newer appellations, they all came from the Wine Society (for which the evening was an excellent advertisement), so many of them were familiar to us. I learned two things, one of which was that the Lirac which we had particularly enjoyed in a mixed case from the Wine Society also comes in a white (and these two were my favourite wines of the evening); the other confirms what I rather suspected, that if someone praises the elegance of a wine, it is likely to be wasted on me.

(And yes, this may go some way to explain why I chose that Vacqueyras to open last night).

Perhaps it's time to post some tasting notes I made a couple of years ago. We were spending a few days in Switzerland on our way back from Italy (where we had been celebrating D.'s significant birthday). We stayed at the Colline de Daval, in a converted water tower among the vines it had been built to irrigate, each bedroom named for a different grape variety. From our balcony, we looked over the vines, back up the Rhône Valley:

And one evening our hostess gave us a tasting of the wines of the property. This is what I wrote immediately after:

Petite Arvine:

reminiscent of the bottle of Fendant we drank last night, but with higher acidity - made my mouth water when we arrived, thirsty, for the tasting - and a cleaner finish. Concentrated, characterful flavour. The traditional description is 'rhubarb' and I see why.

Chardonnay:

lighter (this was the wrong order for the tasting) and less distinctive. No oak. Monique said 'blue flowers' but I got the familiar chardonnay butter / butterscotch, combined with a typically Swiss (Valaisien? or maybe the house style) acidity.

Charmont:

a chardonnay / chasselas cross-pollination. I liked it, found it well integrated, fresh acid but apricot fruits, clean and refreshing. Monique's charmont vines are comparatively old, as she studied with the professor who developed the cross, and planted as a study before the variety was homologué (registered).

Paien de Sierre:

made from savagnin, the grape of vin de paille, which ripens readily - too readily - even at high altitudes. Here as elsewhere, they block the malo. OK, but not as memorable as some of the others.

Pinot noir:

this was another surprise, like most of the wines we tasted a 2009, light and purplish in colour but with the true 'vegetable' pinot noir aroma. Velvet smooth, very little tannin, fruity - with a touch of black pepper on the finish.

Cornalin:

now I see why our room is furnished in such rich purple tones. Very fragrant. Perfectly pleasant, reminded me of plenty of French country wines - a touch of garrigue.

Gamaret:

gamay / reichensteiner cross. Again, less interesting to me than the preceding reds.

Malvoisie fletrie:

late-harvest pinot gris. Lovely pure raisin nose and flavour.

Pinot noir fletrie:

of course I wanted to be bowled over by this. And it's a beautiful colour, golden desert wine with the faintest blush of pink (is this strawberry blonde?). But I found it sweeter than the malvoisie, and ofering little other than sweetness - perhaps a suggestion of strawberry, perhaps not. Monique says it's young, and will open out.

Verdict: the problem with Swiss wines is the price.