Iles feray isn’t Collines Rhodaniennes IGP. It’s under the Ardeche IGP, a much smaller “region”.
I tasted Pierre Jean-Villa’s Esprit d’Antan 2010 3 months ago and it could give a lot of basic Cote-Roties the run for their money.
For a more immediate enjoyment, glou-glou wine, Gerin made a beautiful La Champine in 2016. Less than 10 euros and great and fresh Syrah there, can’t recommend it enough.
Wat!?! Not roasted slope?
I’m a fan of Cuilleron’s bottling. At one time, for a particular vintage, I think I may have called it the best red wine QPR I’ve ever come across.
We’ve had the '14 and '16 Rostaing Lezardes; the '14 was pretty amazing QPR and drank really well last year, but the '16s are babies and need a little rest before they show their stuff. We opened one from our case last week to test and it just started to get good after about an hour open but by then it was almost gone. Definitely on the serious end of things for this type of wine and one that would likely reward a little cellaring.
We had the '16 Jamet last January and thought it was awful, just purple and under-elevaged tasting, I think we sinked it.
We brought a '98 Vins de Vienne Sotanum to a group tasting at Wild Ginger a year or so back and it showed really well, so that’s one data point for these wines aging.
The Helfenbein in our experience is easy drinking but nothing too serious, though it wasn’t bad for the (I think) $12 we paid.
I think we’re bullish on Collines Rhodaniennes generally and if we see one we’ve not had we always snap it up for a taste.
I think for American’s the odds are pretty good that if someone has imported a Collines Rhodaniennes all the way here, it’s likely to be a solid wine. The importing effort is a good filter for quality for these lesser known (to US consumers) appellations.
Somewhere upthread Josh mentions a Billon wine which I think the 2015 is on a rack in my closet somewhere. I’ll open that once the weather cools down a little!
I’ve had this twice. First time about a year or more ago I would agree. Another bottle a couple months ago was beginning to show some syrah character after a couple hours. IMO this wine needs a few years in the cellar and/or a few hours of air.
Here’s a comparative note on two of these wines from 2012, from April 2015:
2012 Domaine Faury Syrah Vin de Pays des Collines
Rhodaniennes
April 13, 2015 - I was quite interested to taste this in comparison to the 2012 Syrah Collines Rhodaniennes from Jamet that I had a few weeks ago. This is all about olive and black pepper. Good acidity. A wine with some muscle but not meant to age I think. The Jamet on the other hand was a prettier wine, with “pure” Syrah fruit, violets and some meat. Both certainly have merit but I prefer the Jamet.
+1 This is really good !
Buried in the notes of a recent tasting of northern Rhone wines in Seattle is mention of Sotanum, a joint venture of Yves Cuilleron, Pierre Gaillard and Francois Villard.
The wine fit right in with the notable competition. Brian Carr mentions the 1998 earlier in this thread. I believe the vintage he brought to the tasting was 2006, and it tasted still young.
I notice in the list from the starting post that most of the better wines from this region are made by respected winemakers from the most famous parts of this wider area, which technically includes all of the classified areas. This seems to be a case of rising prices leading to rising quality of the nearest substitutes.
Yes I enjoyed the Sotanum at the recent Northern Rhone tasting at PeterH’s place. Even though is has a generic Vin de Pays classification it held up well against some very fine Cote Rotie and Hermitage wines. It was one of my favorite wines of the tasting.
That’s a good place to look for undiscovered treasure. Here’s a tasting note for one I had a few years back:
_2010 Domaine Clavel Pic St. Loup Bonne Pioche
Very old-school and very Languedoc-ish. Printer’s ink, old library books, blackcurrant, mourning dove feathers (hunters will understand), and “grandma’s purse”. Hints of “French roast” coffee and orange Pekoe tea at the end. Restrained but utterly charming.
This wouldn’t be every wine drinker’s cup of tea (James Laube probably wouldn’t approve), but I could drink this stuff by the gallon. AFWE folks, back the truck up to the door…
Addendum: with air, this wine becomes more floral, perfumy, and Cote-Rotie-ish; and a slight, but not unpleasant, astringency creeps in to the finish.
The southern French are very canny Syrah-crafters._
Based on this thread I picked up some of the 2016 Jasmin Chevaliere. It’s a really excellent value. It’s not as good as the Gonon Iles de Feray, but it can actually be had, so that’s a big plus. In any case, it’s a lot of Northern Rhone Syrah character for the price. Blackberry and tapenade, similar to the Gonon actually just a bit less of everything. Fun and direct, open now but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just as strong for several years. I prefer this to the Faury and some others I’ve had.