I am hugely excited that the great CDP house Roger Sabon is now part of the La Madelene Rhone Wine Holidays network of vignerons that we will be taking our guests to visit this year. Pictured above is principle wine maker there Didier Negron explaining the Sabon wine making philosophy in their cellars..Didier is the son in law of Jean-Jacques Sabon, one of the three sons of Roger Sabon who started the estate in 1952. He trained as an oenologist at Toulouse, and learnt his craft at Rasteau, Le Nerthe and Chateau de la Gardine. The estate is modest in size, 16ha of red, 1ha of white CDP but quality levels are consistently high. At the top end of their range they produce, in good/great vintages the exceptional Le Secret des  Sabon, one of the top special cuvees of the appellation. But the estate also has 17ha of CDR and Lirac across the Rhone in the Gard…their simple “Le Plaisir” VDT white wine must be one of the great bargains ever, and supports my theory that if you want great everyday drinking look no further than the Cotes du Rhone or even humbler ranking wines of the great Chateauneuf producers…as often as not you will find a passion for excellence which extends throughout the range.

At Domaine de la Janasse last week I believe I may have tasted the very best CDP ever to pass my lips to date. Courtesy of the great generosity of wine maker Isabelle Sabon who seems happy to open such rare beasts for our tour guests ( long may it continue), I sampled the “one off” cuvee which goes by the name “XXL”, 2007 vintage and only two demi muid barrels made, 1300 bottles. Just bottled a few weeks back. Wow!!..was this incredible…meat, game, tar and reglise on the nose, a huge porty wine with garrigue herb and lashings of super concentrated black fruits, powerful but balanced and already smooth, rich and velvet like in texture. Amazing. Farr Vintners have it on their list at over €3000 per case, dealers in the US have it on their lists at €350 per bottle ….not that surprising when you hear that Parker gave it 98-100 points , just a sliver behind the legendary 2007 Jacques Perrin Beaucastel. Heres what the man had to say ( and thank you Isabelle it was a very special treat):

To be bottled in February, 2010, the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape XXL is a blend of 95% Grenache and 5% Mourvedre. It reminds me of what Henri Bonneau’s utterly perfect 1990 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve des Celestins tasted like at two years of age. It has all the characteristics of the Janasse Vieilles Vignes in addition to a slightly later harvest and riper character. It gives the impression of having residual sweetness, but that is not the case as the appellation of Chateauneuf du Pape will declassify any wine with more than 0.3 grams per liter of residual sugar. The glycerin level is high, and the alcohol content must be around 16.5% as this offering is incredibly massive, rich, and obviously meant for long-term aging. I can’t wait to taste it out of bottle. There are only two demi-muids, which works out to about 2,000 bottles, so the lucky few who have an opportunity to purchase it, should not pass it up.

Score: 98-100          Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (185), February 2010

To CDP early on a sunday morning…sipping full bodied red wine at 10.10am, ouch! The event: The spring “Les Printemps, 1er Salos des Vins tasting for professionals and the public at the Salle Dufays hall in the village of Chateauneuf, some 60+ vignerons showing their wines, vintages generally from 2005 to 2008, though many 2007s were missing..all fully sold.Highlights of the tasting: The whites from Gardine, the mineral 2008 and the super lush 60% Rousanne “Vieilles Vignes”, the humble white Cotes du Rhone from Janesse effectively a declassified CDP because of the vintage, a lot of delicious  wine for €10, the various spicy cuvees of Roger Sabon, the super stylish 2005 Cuvee des Cadettes from La Nerthe etc etc. Most interesting for me was the re-tasting of Stanilas Wallut’s (pictured above) 2007 Domaine Villeneuve , a wine our “study group” had admired when we visited last September and tasted the wine from the tank.. Stanislas was still trying to finish what was proving to be a problem fermentation. I had subsequently read with amazement that this wine had scored the bottom mark in a blind tasting of 200 CDPs in a recent issue of Decanter. I probed Stanislas for the answer to this mystery..how had such a promising wine fared so badly. Apparently he’d been forced, reluctantly, not wanting to miss out,to send a sample to the tasting before bottling and still with some unfermented residual sugar…not surprisingly the tasting panel were not impressed. But the truly weird thing is that Bob Parker has given this wine a 94 point score….Stan’s highest to date…and Parker’s sample was dispatched from the tank even before the one that went to the Decanter tasting panel, what does that say about the sweetness of the Wine Emperor’s tooth! By the way I thought the wine was showing magnificently though its true even now in its technically fully fermented form there is just a lingering sweetness to the finish, though the overall impression is of power and ultra ripe fruit.For more on Stan’s wines visit:http:www.domainedevilleneuve.com

Hedonistic times are here again..thanks to our clients and good friends Lars and Pia Rystadius: Pastrana single vineyard Manzanilla sherry, my absolute favourite apero; very pretty, floral and delicate blancs de blancs champagne from Ruinart; Mont Thabor Cotes du Rhone blanc, barrel fermented,  fat, buttery and tremendous value; Premier cru Chablis from the Droin brothers; a magnum of the Domaine de la Solitude “Barberini”2005 already drinking well; and just for a change Pomeral ,the 1997 La Croix du Casse, savoury, plummy and scrummy. Happy Easter all….