The Rhone Valley

Paul Jaboulet Aine is amongst the best and most innovative of the Rhone Valley wine producers and negociants. The firm sources and grows wine from many sources along this important river valley and its best growths are paramount amongst the wines of the region, able to keep company with the best wines of France.

Jaboulet’s three most accessible reds come from the warmer reaches of the southern Rhone. As ever, the Paul Jaboulet Cotes du Rhone Villages 1986 is the model Rhone Valley red. Rich, red and spicy, it owes its ripe fruit flavours to the grenache and shiraz varieties. This maturing wine offers the opportunity to cellar for another three years or to enjoy now.

From the village of Vacqueyras, east of Gigondas and north of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, comes the delightful Cotes du Rhone Vacqueyras 1986, a medium-bodied red of ripe red-currant flavour, spiciness and character. Made largely from grenache, it will peak in around three years’ time, but can also be consumed now.

The Cotes du Ventoux 1986 is the Rhone’s alternative to Beaujolais, intended for young, easy drinking while fresh and fruity. The Cotes du Ventoux is a new appellation south of Gigondas. With soft, mouthfilling fruit from grenache, and the light tannin backbone and elegance of syrah, the Cotes du Ventoux makes the ideal luncheon red, served with light meat dishes and salads.

Paul Jaboulet produces its Cornas 1986 from the Northern Rhone district of the same name. This wine is delicate and restrained, with a characteristic ‘wild’ character. It is soft and more developed, with mellow berry flavours and slightly sharp and aggressive tannins, making an ideal accompaniment for venison and stronger cheeses.

Cote Rotie Les Jumelles 1986

The Cote Rotie is the classic ‘feminine’ red wine of the northern Rhone Valley. Made from syrah, with a small addition of the white grape viognier to contribute acidity, it is a showpiece wine.

The 1986 has a rich, complex nose of depth and red raspberry fruit, enhanced by well-handled oak. The palate is rich, soft and complex, with great fineness and depth of flavour. The fruit is still ripe and fresh, complemented by soft velvet tannins and acids. One of the great Rhone wines, this will develop in the bottle for many years.


Crozes Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert 1986

The Domaine de Thalabert is one of the exceptional sites in the Crozes-Hermitage plain, the land surrounding the hill of Hermitage. Owned by Paul Jaboulet, it is planted exclusively to the premier grape of the district, syrah. The Domaine de Thalabert is characterised by its pebbly soil, making it more like a true Hermitage vineyard than Crozes-Hermitage. The grapes are consequently more concentrated in flavour and smaller in yield.

This wine combines spicy, gamey, and strawberry fruit with dusty oak and milky tannins. The palate is rich, soft and concentrated. A little earthy, it has good structure and a long persistent finish.

Crozes Hermitage 1986

This wine has a concentrated purple tinge, an outstanding colour for a Crozes Hermitage. A rich, ripe luscious bouquet with beautiful pepper aromas.

The acid/tannin/fruit balance is excellent. Certainly a big, full-bodied wine that will be outstanding in 5-8 years.

Cote du Rhone Village 1986

Concentrated purple-red appearance with a thin, purple-pink edge.

Rich with luscious fruit on the palate. Mellow, smooth textured wine with a pleasant smokey character. An ideal food wine over the next few years.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1986

For those unfamiliar with Paul Jaboulet Aine’s ‘Les Cedres’, this noble wine consistently stands above the great bulk of other commercial Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the marketplace. Blended of syrah grapes from the top of the hill, this wine in a good vintage deserves to be cellared for at least ten years.

It is a balanced, dry wine with intense fruit and obvious but judiciously-rendered wood overtones. A beautiful harmony of flavours rolls across the palate in this top-flight example of the appellation. Pepper fans will enjoy the opening nose. Tannin is not excessive. The high fruit extract is offset by a distinct, but desirable acid content.


Saint Joseph ‘Le Grand Pompee’ 1986

Centred around the village of Tournon and including six other villages, this lesser-known northern appellation stretches along the western bank of the Rhone, roughly opposite Hermitage. The vineyards of St Joseph are on hilly, almost inaccessible slopes, where only man, and never machine, can manoeuvre. The syrah grape is solely responsible for the red St Joseph, which is the lightest of the northern Rhones – fully ready at five to eight years of age. The wine exemplifies the colour and heady blackcurrant bouquet of syrah in an elegant setting with luscious fruit and great backbone.

‘La Chapelle’ Hermitage 1986

“La Chapelle’ is Paul Jaboulet’s exclusive Hermitage estate, and its wines are rated as the premier red of Hermitage, and is often preferred to the great growths of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

‘La Chapelle’ is considered by many to be the most complex of the Rhone wines.

1986 ‘La Chapelle’ is a wine of great complexity. A lovely berry nose with new barrel oak. Very intense, very tannic, very long; this will live for many years. It is an outstanding example of a ‘La Chapelle’ from a very good vintage.

Le Chevalier de Sterimberg 1987

From Domaine Paul Jaboulet Aine, the Hermitage Blanc “Le Chevalier de Sterimberg” is considered to be one of the great white wines of the world. This white Hermitage is vinified from Marsanne and Roussanne grapes, and derives its name from the legendary hermit, Chevalier Henri Gasparde de Sterimberg, who built the chapel which crowns Hermitage Hill, upon returning from the Crusades and devoting the rest of his life to cultivating the grape. Having a bouquet of honeysuckle and gunflint, the wine is full, dry and fruity, and is capable of considerable age. Please login to post comment