From €17 a bottle, £156 a dozen in bond
What a pleasure to have supplemented by 650 reviews of 2010 Rhônes with another 60 or so from the northern Rhône this week. Berry Bros are currently offering wines from both northern and southern Rhône and I would argue their northern selection is even better than their already admirable roster from the south. I urge you to take full advantage of the delightful 2010 vintage in the Rhône Valley. The northern Rhône seems to have been especially successful.
I was torn between choosing a Coursodon wine as my wine of the week and one from the redoubtable Stéphane Ogier, whose M & S Ogier, La Rosine Syrah 2010 Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes is a steal at £126 a dozen bottles in bond, but arguably Jérôme Coursodon, St-Joseph purist, is a little less well known, and all of his 2010s were looking stupendous.
They included a delicious, just-bottled, all-Marsanne Dom Coursodon, Silice 2010 St-Joseph Blanc grown on granite that was really vibrant and great value at £168 for 12 bottles in bond (not listed on the formal offer but available to order). But the best value for reasonably early drinking was Dom Coursodon, Silice 2010 St-Joseph Rouge, just £156 a dozen in bond. This was bottled in December and already tastes marvellously polished, vibrant and persistent. This is a blend of wines from several of the Coursodons' parcels around Mauves and also in Glun, Tournon and St-Jean-de Muzols. Nothing but the slopes of the St-Joseph heartland for this well-positioned domaine.
Son Jérôme has been working at the estate since 1998 and started to polish winemaking in 2000. The wines were all very precise, frank and fresh but also welcoming. I would plan to drink this red between 2013 and 2017 and the white over the next three years.
The rather more serious Dom Coursodon, L'Olivaie 2010 St-Joseph Rouge is made from a parcel of 60-year-old vines near St-Jean-de Muzols. Reds get a cold soak for about a week at 12 ºC and are then fermented over three to four weeks with two or three daily remontages and pigeages before a warm post-fermentation maceration and malolactic fermentation in barriques and demi-muids. No new oak is used for the Silice bottling.
The Silice Rouge can be bought by the bottle in France and Belgium. Both Berry Bros and Christopher Keiller are offering it by the dozen in the UK.