When in Rhône (the northern parts) tl;dr

WINE TALK
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Absolutely wonderful posts. Thanks. I can taste this vicariously.

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Each end every time we visited a producer we were asked what other domaines are part of our agenda and unsurprisingly many of the vignerons knew at least some of each others. However one vigneron everybody seemed to know really well and think fondly of was Franck Balthazar. As we could not make a visit to Thierry Allemand happen this year (more and more I think we just got really lucky last year) it was high on our wish list to visit another high level Cornas producer. We were not very familiar with Franck then but knew that the had a really solid reputation with a Chaillot in his line-up so this was definitely one of the most anticipated visits of the trip. That being said it easily exceeded our expectations and we are now fan boys for life.

Franck’s operation is quite interesting as the winery is a compact building behind his house, by the pool and all (built by Franck himself!), in what I would describe as seemingly a fairly tightly built suburb. As we approached the building he walked out the door to greet us, right on time for the visit. We walked downstairs into the cellar and without too much chit-chat started to taste bottled wines. I sensed that Franck was somewhat reserved early on, perhaps because of strange youngish dudes like us or due to English not being his first language it takes a while to really get going.

Early on on top of a barrel there were bottles of 2016 Cuvée Casimir, 2016 Sans Soufre and 2013 Sans Soufre. The wines were very much “on the fruit” but seemed quite promising, with the Cuvée Casimir more classic and more to our taste. A thing to note is that a spit bucket was nowhere to be found and the pours we got were rather generous. The discussion while tasting the wines quickly got very casual and the subjects were all over the place, ranging from the wines in question to Franck telling how Aurélien Chatagnier was once traveling in the U.S. without having booked a flight back to France and as he was sleeping in a rental car he was surprised by a cop and as a result he was forced to book a flight back for him AND a member of law enforcement who would make sure that he indeed gets on the plane.

Then Franck grabbed a bottle of the 2016 Chaillot and one sniff was all it took for us to realize that we had found what we were looking for. It was in some ways similar to the Casimir but notably more complex and refined. Really great acidity and a beautiful minerally streak, tannins are noticeable but not hard. I hesitate to compare this to Allemand’s version as the wines were ice cold last year when we tasted there. Nevertheless as once considers the pricing (35 € vs 67 €) this is one heck of a deal in French Syrah and a really fine wine.

At this point we had been tasting for an hour or so and we expected it all to be over soon. We inquired about buying a few bottles and Franck nodded. My friend asked to use the men’s room and while he followed Franck to his house I stayed in the cellar, taking a couple of photos and finishing my glass. Very soon then Franck returned and suggested that we start tasting some barrel samples. Don’t mind if I do!

Despite being whole cluster fermented the wines are surprisingly easy to taste from the barrel and indeed none of them show any notes of oak. While I am no expert in tasting barrel samples the 2017s seemed promising - riper than 2016 perhaps? - and I look forward to start building a vertical of the Chaillot from here. After tasting a good amount of barrels Franck one again had an idea: “Did you guys know I also make a little bit of white wine?”

We walked upstairs to find a one whole barrel plus a metallic vessel for storing small amounts of wine. Unfortunately the wine from the latter one (the surplus wine after filling the barrel, I am sure) showed some signs of oxidation but the wine from the barrel (100 % 2017 Roussanne) was actually really really tasty. It came off as a sort of Rhône meets Savoie iteration with ripe, vivid fruit and beautiful, lifting acidity. We would have never guessed it to have 15 % ABV as it was so impeccably balanced and not one bit heavy.

Franck turned out to be a super approachable guy. While producing these extremely nice wines in a region that is seeing its top wines go up in price in a Burgundy-like fashion he seems to have no ego whatsoever and zero need to claim the superiority of his way of working the vines and the wines. Much to our delight he seemed to enjoy our visit as well. Franck’s English is quite decent but there were some funny moments nevertheless, especially when my friend asked Franck about how he feels about new oak and Franck responded by telling how much he like going to New York (which I found quite surprising). While in the last two years we have had plenty of really nice winery visits this one might top them all. It’s just the greatest feeling when you connect with a winemaker like this and two hours go by like it was 20 minutes.

After leaving Franck all the wine “tasting” had us feeling really hungry. As my mate called Xavier to discuss dinner plans he said we should come to his winery. While walking in Xavier’s mother handed me this basket full of local cheeses which made the smile on my face go from ear to ear. In the tasting area we found Xavier and the team of sommeliers and sommeliéres from the famed La Pyramide restaurant in Vienne. On the table there was a ton of bottles and by no means just recent vintages. Oh, there was some beautiful sausages and great bread as well, which for me meant that we had the perfect dinner in place right there.

Not everyone is confident about Viognier/Condrieu’s ageing potential but with a well-stored bottle like the 2001 Côte Chatillon made by Xavier’s father Gerard there is a lot of pleasure to be had. The youthful flamboyance is gone and the wine has become more compact and somewhat savory even, but most importantly the drinkability is very good and it pairs well with many of cheeses. The IGP Viognier is indeed the first wine Xavier got to make himself and they still have vintages going back at least to 2006. You would be amazed how well these older vintages have responded to cellaring - they are still very vibrant and enjoyable despite the humble pedigree.

Some older Côte-Rôtie was opened as well and this one (from 1987 if I am not mistaken, truthfully speaking I was getting tipsy at this point, thanks to Franck) was in great form. The nose was quite disturbing right after opening but Xavier promised it to change dramatically with decanting and indeed this is what happened. Very much mature with extremely pleasant red forest fruits - savory with olives and some bouillon as well. My personal sweet spot for Côte-Rôtie tends to be at the 15-20 year mark but I found this one thoroughly enjoyable. Of course it probably plays a big part that the bottle has never been moved from the cellar.

France seems to be full of restaurants with a treasure cave of a wine list, located right in the middle of nowhere. Hôtel des Bains in the village of Charavines next to Lac de Paladru is one such place. It is a little over an hour’s drive from Condrieu and I highly suggest this place to any wine lover who ever happens to find themselves in the Northern Rhône or Savoie. I have a suspicion that it might be on the list of “the restaurants that shall not be named” but whatever, if I did not know about it I would certainly appreciate someone sharing the information with me.

The wine list can be found on the website and reading it all the way through is quite a journey. There are around 1500 carefully chosen items at prices that at times can seem unreal. In a couple of months I will be returning to explore the list more so this time we just decided to have a solid bottle to go with our lunch.

The restaurant is very traditional looking with wooden floor and wooden tables, with only the air conditioners reminding that it is not the 50’s. Also there is a window in front of the bar through the floor to the cellar, with some Rousseau Clos de Roche by the cellar’s ceiling. Near the entrance there was a man with a certain air about him sitting. He greeted us in a very nonchalant yet friendly-ish manner. For some reason I immediately felt he knew the exact reason we had ended up there. As I researched the place later I learned that the man indeed was Pascal Perino: the owner of the restaurant, a composer and a huge wine enthusiast.

After drinking and tasting a ton of Syrah I was really looking for something more refreshing. We ended up ordering a relatively humble bottle of Saint-Aubin which turned out to be just the ticket. A young sommelier brought the bottle and spoke a few sentences of the fastest French I have ever heard - I understood absolutely nothing. Fortunately his bottle-opening technique was as fast as his talk so in a heartbeat we had wine in our glasses.

Still a novice with the 2015 vintage I again found something a lot to my taste, just like the Roulot Bourgogne Blanc a couple of months ago. This one is a little bit lighter than the Roulot but it has good volume, only a hint of oak and really good acidity that provides plenty of freshness and drinkability. A very transparent wine I would say, totally ready for action.

The menu is not necessarily what one might expect, with quite a lot of pork and not necessarily very classic dishes. There was an affordable 3-course lunch menu but there is a limit to how many menus one can eat in a week and at this point having only the main course felt like the thing to do. As we had the wine decided already we were considering different options but in the end the pluma de cochon with polenta sounded great no matter how it might pair so that is what we chose. The sauce had a lot of oomph to it with a great kick of vinegar but it was the really awesome polenta that made the pairing with the wine work. The pluma was also tasty, I really like this part of pig. No matter how rustic the dish looks the taste was on point and no extra courses were needed to fill our stomachs (there was good bread as well!). However there was a good deal of Chartreuses on the list of desserts and we just had to try the VEP with green label. Magical stuff, I must say…

Based on one course only I cannot say how the cooking is in general here but I feel that those coming to drink some special bottles of wine will have great time. After visiting now I am personally even more ecstatic about getting to dine here a couple of times in July.

To conclude this report of our trip I have to say I am very happy about all the comments. Most likely I will not be making a similar trip before next year but based on the feedback I am looking forward to doing more write-ups like this in the future as I really enjoy sharing such experiences with fellow wine geeks. I would also like to encourage others to do the same (no need to be as lengthy as my posts!) as it was indeed the famous thread about JLL and the American winemakers going to the Northern Rhône that first made me and my friends want to badly go to the region.

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Thanks so much for the share. It’s been a pleasure reading your posts. [cheers.gif]

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Really appreciate the write-up!

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This is a fabulous thread, thank you for taking the time to post in such detail.

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Can’t say it better, add another thanks!

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Thanks for your effort and kindness in sharing with us. I had such pleasure in sharing your trip and the wines.

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Great writing - inspiring!!

Thanks much

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[thankyou.gif] [welldone.gif]

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I went to Hotel des Bains with some wine-loving customers and they had me order the wines. My sales guy who was paying for dinner was sweating bullets until he saw the bill.

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No doubt, a large number of wines on that list would be out of my budget in most places.

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Balthazar chaillot is the real deal

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We drank some great wines (Rayas, Raveneau, PYCM) for low prices but also had a lot of fun discussing wine with the staff. The sommelier opened a 2009 Chateau des Tours Cotes du Rhône just because we were discussing if the bottles were flawed (it’s often fizzy). We drank a late harvest Chardonnay from Burgundy… They also brought us a Canadian Apple Icewine gratis, I think because I was American :slight_smile:

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The impression I had as well was that in this place the staff are really, really into wine. Really surprising that they even have a Canadian Apple Icewine on the list!

Funny that you mention the Château/Domaine des Tours as just a while ago I had a faulty bottle of the VdP Vaucluse in a restaurant in France and getting the owner/manager to replace it was an incredibly tall task. He claimed that ideally the producer’s wines should be decanted a day before and that the wines go through a constant rollercoaster of a cycle with some days being bad and some days great and while the bottle in question is perhaps suffering from a less than ideal day there is nothing faulty about it. As I mentioned that I had just drank a bottle of the same vintage 6 months earlier and the experiences were like day and night he responded that the comparison is by no means fair as 6 months is such a long time in a wine’s evolution. For some reason he turned away from us when smelling and tasting the wine. Finally he gave in and said that he can take the wine back but we cannot have another bottle of the same wine as they want to protect their stock. Only in France?

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That’s funny, I went to D’Chez Eux in Paris and ordered a Domaine Gramenon wine, and the waiter jumped through hoops to talk me out of it and into a Ch. des Tours CdR, which I agreed to. He seemed deathly afraid that the Gramenon would be off.

I’ve only had issues with the 2009 Tours CdR, but in my experience once the fizz dissipates the wine is very good (I have occasionally done the one day decant). The guy at Hotel des Bains said his experience was different.

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Wow, I guess the bottle variation must be really big if French people are worried about it. Never tried one but I have a bottle of Les Laurentides waiting to be opened. With our bottle of the Vaucluse there was a little bit of fizz but that was not the problem. Instead if was the finish that was somewhat astringent at first and got significantly worse with time. After a while there was absolutely no fruit left on the finish so the drinking experience was a damn near painful one.

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Fantastic reading, thank you very much for your efforts.

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Great post. I’m planning a trip there myself next month. Did you contact the domaines ahead of time, or just walked up day of?

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You have to contact such domaines in advance, otherwise you’ll need a miracle to get in/spend time with the vigneron.

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I love reading all of your experiences. I just discovered the wines of Aurelien Chatagnier this year!

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