Rhone & Chateauneuf du Pape 2010 - One of the greatest vintages

Gauntleys 2010 Rhone Report In the 20 or so years we have been visiting and working in the Rhone, it is quite possible that 2010, has the potential to be the finest vintage we have seen. Further, if we take into account the 2009 wines that are now complete and in bottle, the two years together are certainly the best back-to-back vintages since 1989 and 1990 or 2000 and 2001. It goes without saying that with the arrival of the ‘second generation’ of young, talented wine makers the choice of fine wines are greater now than ever before. The one cloud on the horizon is that the harvest in 2010 was extremely small – upwards of 40% less wine has been produced than in 2007 (the crop in 2009 was 30% down on 2007 to compound the shortages). The crop was naturally small in 2010 owing to the combination of a particularly cold winter, (Chateauneuf had snow for the first time since the mid-seventies) and a particularly ferocious spring mistral that blew a good proportion of the young buds off the vines. Then followed an almost perfect growing season with sufficient rainfall and sunshine to allow an even maturation, (the last seven vintages have all been marked by drought to some degree or another). As a consequence the harvest could be completed quickly and evenly, unlike 2009 where successive tries were required to bring in the correctly matured fruit. By and large the fermentations were simple and quick too, with few problems of heat and excessive sugars. In fact the majority of the wines have been fermented to near complete dryness. The resulting richness in the 2010s, comes from the level of ripeness in the grapes, not residual sugar. So, what do the wines taste like? For me, there is an extraordinary sense of completeness, the wines appearing to have been ‘gently touched by a kiss of tannin’, to quote one particularly poetic vigneronne! At the same time the majority possess a minerality/acidity, (rarely felt down here), that refreshes the seemingly perfect maturity of fruit, which has not been ‘aided’ by the influence of much residual sugar. - Gauntleys