We invited the celebrated house of Chapoutier to help us realise an ultimate project in wine creation, blending Rhône varietals from France and Australia to create a wine that at once makes sense and is of course delicious and rewarding.
My idea was to create a wine that members will love by combining wines from opposite ends of the globe. Chapoutier were key to this project because they have such a global view of wine and love to test the boundaries.
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The family is based in Tain l’Hermitage in the Rhône but they make wine in the Roussillon, Germany and Portugal and have a historical connection with the town of Heathcote in the state of Victoria, famous for its shiraz. Had anyone thought of blending syrah from Tain with shiraz from Heathcote?
Like The Society, the Chapoutier family are keen to innovate and were immediately taken with the project. Tastings of the prototype wine took place in the Rhône and the component parts were selected and shipped in bulk to the UK. Fortunately, recent changes in UK law now permit international wines to be blended here and be called ‘wine’, something that is illegal within the EU. While this could be abused to create average-quality wines with a limited sense of place, we’re creating a fine wine from one of the world’s greatest producers.
The wines will be bottled in lightweight bottles in the UK, showing that this isn’t just the route for cheap blends and can work for fine wine too.
