The Winery Terra Sanctus of Rhône méridional of Rhone Valley

Like many teenagers, I was obsessed with movies when I was growing up. When I see original posters today for films I enjoyed back then, the effect is immediate – a glance somehow conjures the story, the characters and the emotional impact all at once. Today, wine labels can have a similar effect. And what more iconic labels are there in the Rhône than Guigal’s single vineyard Côte-Rôties? When I see the red and gold label of La Mouline, it has the same effect as when I’m confronted with the post ...

Whenever I visit Domaine Richaud, just outside the village of Cairanne, the winemaking team remind me of friends I made at free parties in the 1990s in fields and disused warehouses. I’m not talking dreadlocks and dogs on strings, but there’s always an anarchic frisson in the air. You get the impression they know how to enjoy themselves. Perhaps it’s to be expected, given the radical furrow Marcel Richaud has ploughed. He’s approaching 70 now, but still thrums with pent-up energy, his ice-blue e ...

Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...