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The GILBERT & GAILLARD International Magazine : Make some room in your lounge for WINE REGIONS from around the world
The GILBERT & GAILLARD International Magazine :
Make some room in your lounge for WINE REGIONS from around the world
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RHONE VALLEY<br />
– BLENDING –<br />
Views out over Château Isolette’s vineyards, between Bonnieux and Apt<br />
in the Luberon appellation area<br />
fine grain and delicate toast”, adds the property’s technical<br />
director. At Isolette, oaky wines are set aside for a small<br />
clientele of enthusiasts.<br />
Current restructuring of Isolette’s vineyards implies<br />
replanting Mourvèdre. Rouquet believes that adverse<br />
weather is making Mourvèdre a great ally for red wines<br />
because it is a late-ripener. The variety counterbalances<br />
alcohol levels in the earlier-ripening Grenache, and<br />
although Syrah seems to be adapted to drought conditions,<br />
its alcohol content can be high, whereas Mourvèdre makes<br />
a great blender.<br />
The varietal trio Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre will<br />
produce the red Rhone wines of the future, although leaf<br />
removal and irrigation will be required to rein in alcohol.<br />
At Château Isolette, everyone is busy replanting five<br />
hectares of vines.<br />
Château Isolette, recently bought by Polish investors,<br />
is the oldest estate in the Luberon<br />
THREE PRIORITIES FOR CÔTES DU RHÔNE<br />
Denis Guthmuller is the chairman of the Côtes du Rhône<br />
and Côtes du Rhône Villages producers’ organisation<br />
and since 2014, he has also co-chaired the economic<br />
committee at Inter Rhône, the regional wine marketing<br />
board. Originally from Alsace, he has been farming forty<br />
hectares in Sainte Cécile les Vignes, Vaucluse, with his wife<br />
Florence since the late 1990s. His sense of public duty<br />
quickly led him to a number of collective tenures. He was<br />
chairman of the Cave Cécilia co-operative winery for many<br />
years before it merged with the co-operative in Cairanne,<br />
which he now co-chairs. He converted his family farm to<br />
organic in 2009, and took a proactive role in establishing<br />
the South-East France organic wine marketing board in<br />
2019, which he also chairs.<br />
Although his work at the head of the producers’ organisation<br />
is a seamless transition from his previous tenures, Denis<br />
Guthmuller has set himself several priorities. The first is<br />
to boost winegrowers’ income through yields, a key factor<br />
in profitability, while maintaining a high level of quality.<br />
His second priority is to ramp up activities that favour<br />
protection of the environment and biodiversity. His goal<br />
is anything if not ambitious, and that is to make the<br />
Côtes du Rhône appellation a national benchmark for<br />
sustainability. He feels the Rhone climate is relatively<br />
conducive to ethically-focused environmental practices<br />
30 WINTER 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE