Cotes du Rhone Mon Coeur Selection JL Chave 2019 Red view 1

Cotes du Rhone Mon Coeur Selection JL Chave 2019 Red view 2

Cotes du Rhone Mon Coeur Selection JL Chave 2019 Red view 3

Cotes du Rhone Mon Coeur Selection JL Chave 2019 Red

Côtes-du-Rhône Mon Coeur, Sélection Jean-Louis Chave 2019

Red Wine from France - Rhone

0 Reviews

The origins for this wine are Rasteau, Cairanne, Visan and, above all, Vinsobres, which Jean-Louis Chave sees as having such great potential. There is lovely, easy balance in 2019, anfd the wine is fragrant and ripe yet slightly restrained and finishes well.

£13.50 Bottle

£81.00 Case of 6

In Stock

Code: RH58861

Wine characteristics

Red Wine
Full-bodied
Grenache Syrah
75cl
Now to 2030
14.5% Alcohol
oak used but not v. noticeable
Cork, natural

Southern Rhône (excluding Chateauneuf)

Producing over 3.5m hl (hectolitres), this is the second biggest region for production of appellation contrôlée wine in France after Bordeaux. Most is red, though production of both white and pink is growing. Some 20 grape varieties are planted in the south though one in particular, Grenache, gives the region as a whole its identity: generosity, body, weight and a definite tendency to making big wines. More than half of the production is of Côtes-du-Rhône with the best sold as Côtes-du-Rhône Villages. Better still are the so-called crus led by Châteauneuf-du-Pape itself.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape: This large area to the north of Avignon makes the best wines of the south. Reds tend to be grenache based with syrah, mourvèdre and counoise also used. Few wines combine immense strength with perfect elegance quite so convincingly. Word of caution: Châteauneuf produces as much wine as the whole of the northern Rhône put together. A third is very good, a third acceptable and the last third,...

Producing over 3.5m hl (hectolitres), this is the second biggest region for production of appellation contrôlée wine in France after Bordeaux. Most is red, though production of both white and pink is growing. Some 20 grape varieties are planted in the south though one in particular, Grenache, gives the region as a whole its identity: generosity, body, weight and a definite tendency to making big wines. More than half of the production is of Côtes-du-Rhône with the best sold as Côtes-du-Rhône Villages. Better still are the so-called crus led by Châteauneuf-du-Pape itself.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape: This large area to the north of Avignon makes the best wines of the south. Reds tend to be grenache based with syrah, mourvèdre and counoise also used. Few wines combine immense strength with perfect elegance quite so convincingly. Word of caution: Châteauneuf produces as much wine as the whole of the northern Rhône put together. A third is very good, a third acceptable and the last third, undrinkable.

Right bank: Villages include Tavel (rosé only) Lirac, Saint-Gervais and Laudun. There is more rain here but it is also hot and grapes are therefore early ripening. Most of the area lies in the département of the Gard and stretches from the river westwards towards Nîmes where at some ill-defined line in the soil, the Rhône becomes the Languedoc. This is an area that has much improved over the years and has become a valuable source for very fine, concentrated syrah wines in particular.

A little further on are the Costieres de Nimes, a large area of upland plateau, south-east of Nîmes. For the moment the Costières produces good everyday wines of good quality but there is potential to do much more.

Northern hills: There are fresh sub-alpine breezes at work here and as a result the wines often have a distinct freshness too. Just north of Orange is the largely wooded and isolated Massif d'Uchaux. Many of its star producers here are able to farm organically.

The three 'Vs' : Valréas, Visan and Vinsobres: These are three top neighbouring villages (with a 4th, Saint-Maurice broadly similar to Vinsobres). Vinsobres has full cru status and makes superb wine. Best names include Perrin, now the largest land owner and Domaine Jaume whose wines have been charming members since the 1979 vintage.

Valréas and Visan are planted on the same hill but tend to look north. Emmanuel Bouchard is one of the top names in Valréas. Adrien Fabre makes both outstanding examples of both Visan and Saint-Maurice.

Tricastin/Grignan-lès-Adhémar - The Tricastin is a much neglected part of the Rhône and coming down from the northern Rhône, these are the first vines one sees. It's a relatively cool area, far too cold for growing mourvèdre successfully, but the whites do very well and so does the syrah grape. The area has seen a name change as Tricastin is also the name of a power station on the river. The new name for the wines (which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue), is Grignan-lès-Adhémar.

Central hills - This includes the villages of Cairanne and Rasteau along with neighbouring Roaix. Big full-bodied wines, grenache dominated. Rasteau is all power and might while Cairanne is more deicate.

Plan de Dieu - Large flat expanse of pudding stones that seem to stretch as far as the eye can see, in the middle of which there is an airfield, (largely built for the Luftwaffe) surrounded by vines. Full-bodied style. Excellent for mourvèdre. Jaboulet are very good here as is the Meffre family.

Eastern fringes - Set against an iconic landscape with Mont Ventoux and the craggy Dentelles de Montmirail as the backdrop, some of these hillsides were first planted by the Romans and include some of the best-known names in the Rhône Valley.

Gigondas: Mountain wine, late harvested, always dramatic and very full-bodied though never coarse or overweight. These are generous reds, capable of long ageing. A little rosé is also made.

Vacqueyras: Next door to Gigondas yet different. Fruitier, a shade less powerful and more obviously charming:

Beaumes de Venise: The red is as full as Gigondas but rounder and less complex and this village is better known for its sweet muscat, a vin doux naturel and perfect for desserts.

Ventoux: At nearly 2000m this is some mountain which scores of cyclists are forced to conquer every year in the Tour de France. Its lower slopes are vineyard country though. Traditionally these were known as Côtes du Ventoux and were made and sold cheaply. Things are changing though with more estates cutting yields and making full and concentrated wine, not dissimilar to and better value than many Châteauneufs.

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave is unquestionably one of the great wine estates of France and, as the label says quite modestly, can trace its origins back to 1481. The family comes from the Ardèche, in particular the village of Lemps. This is still the spiritual home of the family, who own a large house there, and also the location of Chave’s first vineyards, on land which today is part of the Saint-Joseph appellation.

Of course the renown of Chave rests with the wines of Hermitage on the other side of the river, but acquisition came much later when the ravages of the phylloxera epidemic and the Great War made land suddenly available and at quite good prices. Today they own 15ha of vineyard, all scattered across Hermitage and reflecting the great geological diversity of the hill. It makes Chave the fourth-biggest landowner there (after Chapoutier, the Tain Co-operative and Jaboulet).

What makes the Chaves special, quite apart from their prodigious talents and attention to detail, is the respect they have for tradition and for the appellation itself. Their interpretation of Hermitage exists as a blend of different terroirs, from the granites of les Bessards to the rich clay and limestone of Méal. They make outstanding wines in both red and white Hermitage and in some years even a tiny amount of vin de paille.

The Wine Society has known two generations of Chaves. There was Gérard, learned epicurean with a passion for duck shooting, who made some of the greatest Hermitage ever,...

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave is unquestionably one of the great wine estates of France and, as the label says quite modestly, can trace its origins back to 1481. The family comes from the Ardèche, in particular the village of Lemps. This is still the spiritual home of the family, who own a large house there, and also the location of Chave’s first vineyards, on land which today is part of the Saint-Joseph appellation.

Of course the renown of Chave rests with the wines of Hermitage on the other side of the river, but acquisition came much later when the ravages of the phylloxera epidemic and the Great War made land suddenly available and at quite good prices. Today they own 15ha of vineyard, all scattered across Hermitage and reflecting the great geological diversity of the hill. It makes Chave the fourth-biggest landowner there (after Chapoutier, the Tain Co-operative and Jaboulet).

What makes the Chaves special, quite apart from their prodigious talents and attention to detail, is the respect they have for tradition and for the appellation itself. Their interpretation of Hermitage exists as a blend of different terroirs, from the granites of les Bessards to the rich clay and limestone of Méal. They make outstanding wines in both red and white Hermitage and in some years even a tiny amount of vin de paille.

The Wine Society has known two generations of Chaves. There was Gérard, learned epicurean with a passion for duck shooting, who made some of the greatest Hermitage ever, notably the 1978 and 1990. Then came his son Jean-Louis, introspective and perfectionist with his American wife and accent.

Jean-Louis gradually took over during the 1990s, helped no doubt by the run of less favourable vintages in 1992, 93 and 94 – it is always better to start with difficult vintages: if you can cope with these you can cope with anything! There is a restless energy about Jean-Louis and with it a realisation that making great Hermitage was not enough of a challenge. Accordingly, he founded a very successful négoce house, which produces a very fine Côtes-du-Rhône and Saint-Joseph.

Over the generations, the cellars in Chave’s headquarters at Mauve have expanded and today occupy three separate sites. First there are ancient cobwebbed cellars beneath Gérard’s house, where Hermitage is made. The négoce part of the enterprise is just round the corner in more functional surroundings. Finally, the Chaves bought the estate that was owned by their friends, the Florentin family. This included the legendary Clos de l’Arbelestrier which Jean-Louis is busy replanting and sorting out.

The big project chez Chave is their Saint-Joseph vineyards. The ancestral site in Lemps on very steep granite was never replanted after phylloxera: in those days there was neither the money nor the manpower to undertake such work and the price for Saint-Joseph wine was far less than Hermitage. Understandably, all their efforts went into the latter and it is only in the last 10 years or so that they have begun to look at Saint-Joseph afresh. The task has been enormous: clearing the land of trees and shrubs, ploughing, rebuilding miles of dry stone walls and, only then, replanting. But there is real belief here that these ancient soils will one day produce great wine again.

The Society’s Exhibition Hermitage
The Chaves are owners in many of the best plots on Hermitage. Each vineyard is harvested and vinified separately before being raised in Burgundian barrels. Jean-Louis Chave starts making up his blends after these elements have spent a year or so in barrel and, inevitably, some of become surplus to requirements. It is these parcels that form the basis of The Society’s Exhibition Hermitage.

The holdings on Hermitage
There are 9.3ha of reds and 4.6ha of whites The principal vineyards are as follows:
L’Hermite: 3.45 ha. Syrah and roussanne
Rocoules: 3.45 ha. Syrah and marsanne
Bessards: 2.05ha. 80-year-old syrah and the key ingredient in the red
Péléat: 1.51ha. Mostly syrah but there is a plot of 100-year-old marsanne
Le Méal: 1.02ha. 60-year-old syrah vines
Diognières: 0.58ha. 50-year-old syrah vines
Beaumes: 0.31ha. 60-year-old syrah vines
Vercandieres: 0.46 ha. Syrah on granite at the bottom of Bessards
Maison Blanche: 0.33ha. Marsanne

Winemaking is along classical lines except that the fruit is cooled down before fermentation begins. Historically, red Hermitage was always destemmed, and still is today, to about 80% in order to avoid astringent tannins. Maceration and cap management is done by punching down, sometimes very traditionally by foot.

All of the reds and most of the whites are aged in barrel for about 18 months with the amount of new wood dependent on the style of the vintage. Wines are bottled unfiltered and invariably develop a considerable crust or sediment.

The 2019 Rhône vintage continued this regionâ€™s run of excellent vintages with surely the boldest statement yet. Of past vintages, 1990 springs to mind for the purity of fruit and ripeness of the tannins, but on a much bigger scale.

The climate of course played its part in full and as in previous years, heat and drought were overriding factors that shaped the destiny of this vintage. But that is not the whole story. What is exceptional about the 2019 vintage is that the wines are not lacking in acidity and therefore have freshness. Stranger still, pH values, a good way of assessing a vintage, are often quite low.
So what were the â€˜Xâ€™ factors that make 2019 so special? For a start, though there were indeed times of drought, ground water was never really lacking. Autumn rainfall had been plentiful enough. Temperatures for the first months of the year remain on the cool side. Then there was much needed rain in April and May, just when the vine needed it most before flowering. For...

The 2019 Rhône vintage continued this regionâ€™s run of excellent vintages with surely the boldest statement yet. Of past vintages, 1990 springs to mind for the purity of fruit and ripeness of the tannins, but on a much bigger scale.

The climate of course played its part in full and as in previous years, heat and drought were overriding factors that shaped the destiny of this vintage. But that is not the whole story. What is exceptional about the 2019 vintage is that the wines are not lacking in acidity and therefore have freshness. Stranger still, pH values, a good way of assessing a vintage, are often quite low.
So what were the â€˜Xâ€™ factors that make 2019 so special? For a start, though there were indeed times of drought, ground water was never really lacking. Autumn rainfall had been plentiful enough. Temperatures for the first months of the year remain on the cool side. Then there was much needed rain in April and May, just when the vine needed it most before flowering. For most, these would be the last rains until the end of August. And then of course was the heat â€“ sometimes excessive with peaks occasionally exceeding 40C â€“ but never constant, and temperatures at night remained relatively cool, allowing the vine to rest. Late summer rains come as a relief and is then followed by a final heatwave in September, setting the harvest in a blaze of sunshine.

Everywhere made exceptional wines. Both the northern and southern Rhône produced brilliant 2019s. The grenache grape knows all about heat, but what was remarkable was the quality of the so-called â€˜second-tierâ€™ varieties such as cinsault and counoise. Such conditions are not common in the north, but the vine adapts and there was no water shortage. That said, the syrahs from the north are like nothing before: so dark, brooding and strong. â€˜Flamboyanceâ€™ is a word that crops up in tasting notes and is a truly apt one in describing these wines. Speaking to a grower with the gift of synaesthesia, the colour red in all its shades, seemed to define this vintage.