Domaine Colombier in Crozes-Hermitage
(Photographs: © Copyright Per Karlsson, BKWine.com)
Every
appellation needs its “engine room” domaines – those that keep turning out
well-made wines without fuss and pretensions. Colombier is one such estate.
Very tall, chatty, and charming, Florent Viale runs the wine side. His
grandfather was a mixed farmer, with chickens, cows, and horses, plus vines and
fruit. The family continues to cultivate fruit trees and since 1991 has bottled
and sold its wine. Previously the Hermitage was sold to Guigal, the red Crozes
to Ogier and to Burgundy, and the white Crozes to Paul Jaboulet Aîné – good
addresses all. Now just about 10 per cent, from the young vines and the press
wine, goes away in bulk.
The
cellars are part of a pretty domaine at the foot of the east side of the
Hermitage hill and have been there for three generations. Father Gaby, born in
1939, is a contemporary of Albert Belle, and both men set off on their own
domaine wine track at about the same time. The Viales have always worked half in
fruit, notably apricots plus some cherry and peach. Cherries are the least
popular fruit from the angle of their harvesting clashing with vineyard work in
mid-May.
The vineyard holdings have grown in the past few years. There are over 13
hectares of Syrah for their Crozes, 1.9 hectares of Marsanne for the white, and
precious 1.81 hectares for the Hermitage.
The
Crozes Syrah grows on gentle, tractor-friendly terraces around Mercurol and
Tain. Colombier itself is right in the commune of Tain, with a filtering,
sandy-sediment soil topped with broken stones. At Mercurol the soil is more red
clay, with a couch of gravel about a metre down. Their Crozes runs over a dozen
or so plots.
The
Marsanne grows in four plots; many of the vines date back between 70 and 100
years, their centre being Croix du Torras, right next to the most easterly slope
of Hermitage, Les Signeaux, or Torras et les Garennes as it is now known. The
other three plots are at Mercurol, led by a notable 0.3 ha of 1902 Marsanne on
Les Pends. “We bought this in 1997,” recalls Florent; “it’s a fantastic old
vineyard, but it took me four winters with my pickaxe to get it in better shape.
The old owner would deliver the crop to the Cave de Tain.” The other sites at
Mercurol are Mont Rousset and Creux Charbonnier.
The outlook is practical. Spraying is done against grape worm blight, but
likewise, excess leaves are cleared and the soil is banked and worked. “I adapt
as necessary,” says Florent: “I just want healthy vines.”
Florent
was a latecomer to the domaine, having worked off a serious amount of
wanderlust. His travels took him to Central America and Africa, and he worked as
a ski instructor in the Vercors mountains nearby, before a year’s training in
the Libourne near Bordeaux in 1988. He has a relaxed attitude and with his broad
outlook is happy to chat beyond the subject of wine.
The Syrah is vinified whole in a variety of vats – concrete, steel and wood;
a 30-hectolitre open wood vat is from his grandfather’s time, and Florent does a
foot pigeage on this: “It’s useful to help me judge the vintage quality because
in the good years it’s hard to break down the top crust; I wear my bathing
trunks for that.”
The
Crozes is fermented for two weeks, around the 30 C mark, with the end
temperature rising to 34 C before gradually descending to 22 C and devatting.
Florent is careful about excess heat for the loss of fruit it can bring.
Ageing is 50 to 60 per cent in cask, with the demi-muid 600-litre barrel
favoured, the rest steel or enamel vats. The Gaby cuvée is selected from the
best casks wine, one month before bottling around November, 14 months after the
harvest.
The
classic red shows soft fruit, with a sprinkling of tannin, a wine that is fine
to drink within three to six years old, although it should last longer. The Gaby
rouge (18,000 bottles) has more scale – increased black fruit and tarry content.
It gains leathery tones with age and drinks well towards 12 years old or so.
The white receives only a light decantation after pressing, and is then 80
per cent vat, 20 per cent oak fermented, and raised for 10 months. Since 1997
there has also been a Cuvée Gaby white (1,500 bottles), all done in new wood for
a year when conditions lend themselves (there was no Gaby in 2000). Florent’s
comments on this are a relief to hear: “We started to make this wine with lees
stirring, but the wine came out too massive and wooded, with low acidity and a
loss of finesse. Now we let the malo occur.”
[followed by a series of tasting notes]
© Copyright John Livingstone-Learmont & University of California Press
Extract from the book:
The Wines of the Northern Rhône Valley
by John Livingstone-Learmont
University of California Press
En français
