Chêne Bleu is one of France’s top
boutique wines and has become internationally recognized as one of the world’s
most exciting new wines. Founded just 20 years ago by Xavier Rolet, his wife
Nicole and Xavier’s sister and brother-in-law Benedicte and Jean-Louis the
winery that makes Chêne Bleu is called La Verriere and is located in
the Southern Rhone high in the mountains above Avignon, Chateauneuf du Pape and
Gigondas.
In fact, they are the highest vineyards in the
southern Rhone and are in the Destelles de Montmirail on Mount Ventoux, part of
the most grueling stage of the legendary Tour de France cycle race. La Verriere
is a restored 9th century priory once looked at by potential buyer
HRH Prince Charles of England but was persuaded against buying it as it was
thought that it would take around 10 years to restore. This estimation was not
far wrong as it took the Rolet’s 12 years to get the whole place into a
condition fit for living and making wine again.
Nicole Rolet dropped into Hong Kong yesterday
to tell us a little about her wines - of which she has a firm and passionate
hand in the blending of – and let some of the local media taste and pair the
wines with some expertly prepared Chinese food at Kee Club. Nicole explained
the terroir of the region and a little about the vines prior to lunch
explaining that there is a “very particular mineral cocktail in the vineyards”
that leads to the unique nuances in her wines. The vines, located way atop of
the mountain are stressed to say the least! “It’s nuts!” Nicole says. “The vines
are two meters high but their roots go down over one hundred meters to find
water”.
The
region itself was, according to Nicole “very much a tourist place for the 50 years
prior to us making wines there, wine was an afterthought. All the grapes used
to go to a co-operative during this time”. Now, refurbished and making stunning
wines, the Rolet’s focus is not just on winemaking but sustainable, organic and
biodynamic farming methods. “We are very focused on the ecosystem”, she says. “We
have bamboo to filter the water, bees, biodynamic lavenders, lambs and plenty
of flora and fauna. We really want to ensure the stability of our environment”.
So that’s all well and good, but what are the
wines like? The Chêne Bleu Rosé 2011 was the first wine we tried
together and, in Nicole’s words, “it’s more of an anti-rosé rosé – complex with
a great finish and has a very aromatic concentration”. It’s a rosé that can age
according to Nicole noting that she has done vertical tastings with the rosé back
to 2006 (the first vintage). “We bottled in screw cap as thought they couldn’t
age, but we were surprised to find out how well they can”! Its interesting
viscosity makes it ideal to pair with food; “it’s like a key that can unlock
many doors as you can match it with a broad spectrum of foods”.
My thoughts were exactly this: it has a creamy
rich texture with some subtle strawberry flavours that’s very fresh on the
palate. If you close your eyes and swallow the wine and let the finish evolve,
it’s easy to imagine yourself on a sunny summer’s afternoon in a country field
amongst the hedgerows, buttercups and dandelions; the gentle breeze brings
the scents of summer to your nose as birds chirp on the wing above you. Poetic.
Next up was the Chêne Bleu Viognier 2009, a voluptuous
wine with some oily, glycerin petroleum notes usually associated with Riesling
(I say usually associated as I never get petrol from the Riesling I drink!)
Nicole tells me that the whites are recent plantings and that there is very
little white wine made. In her words, the Viognier is a “pretty expression of
the vineyard” and “elegant, timeless and perfumed, much like Chanel #5”. It was
originally made to blend with the Syrah – but it was overpowering the Syrah and
the left over white was bottled. The end result, mistake or not, is a sublime
one. It’s friendly and accessible according to Nicole and it certainly has a
seductive quality.
La Verriere makes another white called Chêne Bleu Aliot
which is a blend of Marsanne (5%), Granache Blanc (30%) and Rousanne (65%) –
typical Rhone white grapes. We tasted again the 2009 vintage which was blended
by Nicole herself who admits she spent “way too much time on the blending of
this wine, but it’s my passion so forgive me”! It’s an attention-grabbing wine
for sure as it has complexity, minerality and acidity. I fell in love yesterday
afternoon and I am thinking about having a summer fling with Aliot as it took
my breath away – please let it be a sunny summer so I can spend adulterous
afternoons with her.
My thoughts on the wine at the time were
exactly this: Close your eyes. This wine is like the smell of watching cricket
on a sunny Saturday afternoon with an ice cream from the old school ice cream
van that drives through villages with its seductive bell enticing kids to run
out from their homes with their pocket money. There’s so much nature in the glass.
Fresh cut grass, a little bit of earth like the crew-cut wicket in the middle
and the wood, albeit oak, is like the abundance of willow in the pavilion;
there, but by no means the centre of attention as there’s so many more other exciting
things going on. Howzat!
Next up were the pair of reds that they make, both
from the 2007 vintage and tasted together for a good reason. The wines are
called Chêne Bleu Heloise and Abelard. The wines are named after a tragic couple
that found themselves in a painful predicament back in medieval days (excuse
the pun but Abelard was castrated by Heloise’s father for getting her pregnant
out of wedlock). The wines are true to the pair they are named after with the Heloise
a feminine, restrained and elegant wine. A Syrah, with that beautiful little
blend of Viognier, it’s clear this wine was made by a woman with a gentle
touch. “We wanted to split the two profiles of the vineyard into two different wines”,
Nicole says.
My thoughts on it were exactly this: It reminds
me of my wife when she is in one of her ecstatically good moods; bright and
makes you want to smile infectiously. The spiciness and bite is still there,
like Dr. Jekyll’s Mr. Hyde, but in this it’s subdued – much like an Asian wife.
(My wife is Chinese by the way!)
The Abelard is, if you’ll excuse the pun again,
a bit ballsier. It has a huge finish and much fuller and tannic. It could definitely
do with a good decanting before drinking, in fact Nicole recommends decanting
both. It’s certainly a man’s wine and is unmistakably Rhone in nature. I loved
it and it begs for a rare, juicy Rib-Eye steak.
My thoughts on this were this: It’s like a
Harley Davidson motorcycle wearing its own handle bar moustache; grunty, big
and in your face, but being ridden by a clean shaven Pierce Brosnan in a tux
and bowler hat. A visual and now sensual oxymoron.
In all, it’s hard to say I was not “wowed” by
these wines as they are truly superb and definitely worth the praise they’ve received
from wine critics around the world. Not having them in my cellar right now is
like waiting for the lost dog that may return home; anticipation mixed with
sadness and expectation I think describes not owing a bottle at the moment. I’ll
have to remedy that soon – especially if I am going to have that summer fling.
Chêne Bleu wines are exclusively
available from Sarment in Hong Kong. For more information contact Robert
Temple, Managing Director by e-mail at robert@sarmentwine.com
or call (+852) 21873295. You can find more information on their website www.sarment.hk
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