WineNZ Summer 18-19 (1)

forth many times every year, always by car.
Within an hour or two of landing in Lyon,
I was among vines, first in Côte Rotie, then
Condrieu. Crazily terraced, hazardously
steep, hard-won from the hillside with picks,
shovels and strong backs, these northern
Rhône vineyards provoke disbelief (and
very sore muscles).
Late that afternoon, I was back on the
valley floor at Tain-Hermitage, the town
at the heart of the northern Rhône. From
the front door of Le Vineum, Jaboulet’s
cellar door and restaurant in the Place
du Taurobole, you are overlooked by the
imposing Hermitage hillside, crowned with
its legendary chapel. Inside Le Vineum, I
at last met Caroline Frey.
She has the presence of a horsewoman,
I thought immediately. It’s a look I know,
having grown up with horsey siblings and
attending (reluctantly) more A&P shows
than I care to remember. It’s not just her
clothes (unflashy, dark tones, a jacket that
could have been worn at a three day event).
There is also a controlled calm, along with
an alertness, that perhaps owe something to
having learned how to communicate with
an intelligence other than human.
Frey no longer rides, she tells me. Her life
is now given over to twin loves – a seven
year old daughter and wine. The more she
talks about the latter, the more you get a
sense of how genuine her conscience is
in regard to the business of making wine.
I put it to her that overseeing three fine
estates in three great regions is not your
everyday gig. She is privileged. Does all
that come with a degree of pressure?
“The only pressure I feel is in my
relationship with these places. We have a
passion for ‘grand terroirs’ and with that
there is heritage – the heritage of the earth
and the stones beneath. These places are
unique in the world, not just for their soils
but also their energy. In our La Chapelle
vineyards you sense a special energy. For me
it is important that these places be preserved
and worked ‘correctly’. That is a duty.”
The next day I am taken to the top of the
Hermitage hill. It is a beautiful, peaceful
place. It has been doing what it does for
over 2000 years and everything about it
seems old and wise and sane. The small
12th century chapel itself is owned by the
Jaboulet estate and was recently restored
by the Frey family – another dutiful act.
We tasted through a Jaboulet selection,
mostly 2016s. I fell in love with several
wines well before I arrived at La Chapelle.
The Domaine de Saint-Pierre Cornas
2016, for example – an essay in structural
elegance. And La Maison Bleue Hermitage
2015: dense, generous and remarkably
lengthy.
Everything about the Jaboulet La Chapelle
2016 is precise and contained. Young and
tight, its pure dark fruit has a steely edge
and the tannins are ample yet finely woven.
It is all about beauty, not the beast.
When the Frey family acquired an estate
in Burgundy in 2014, another grande maison
became theirs. Hard to miss, this stately
chateau rises above the small town of
Corton and dazzles with its richly tiled roof,
the frey way | feature
similar to that of the Hospices de Beaune.
It’s early days for what has been
rechristened Chateau Corton C. The estate’s
conversion to organics has begun and a new
winery was recently built. Production is
currently small (30,000 bottles per vintage)
but ambition is not in short supply… the
Freys are on the lookout for more vineyards
in Burgundy.
Caroline Frey admitted to me her marriage
to pinot noir has not yet been consummated,
although “it will come”. However, some
delightful wines are already being made.
My five-day, three region swing ended with
a tasting of the Chateau Corton C. range.
Two pinots stood out – Aloxe Corton 1er
Cru Les Paulands 2015 and Auxey-Duresses
1er Cru Le Val 2015.
The day before, Frey had said the empire
could well keep expanding. Alsace. I
enquired? She smiled and nodded, but
intimated her next region of preference
was Piedmont in Italy.
What holds no interest is the New World.
(“Too far. I would be a consultant, which
is not what I want”.) She confessed to
having tasted only a small number of New
Zealand wines, all of them white, and was
embarrassed at not being able to recall
their names.
Then I told her that the name of one of
New Zealand’s finest syrahs, Trinity Hill
Homage, was a salute to the late Gérard
Jaboulet. Now that did interest her.
Memo to Trinity Hill: you might want
to send Caroline Frey a bottle.
18 th century elegance: Chateau La Lagune The barrel hall at Chateau La Lagune
www.winenzmagazine.co.nz
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