This is Neal’s final dispatch from the Northern Rhone:
September 20, 2013
“To wrap up the Northern Rhone…I had a pleasant encounter with Yves Cuilleron. Yves continues to expand his holdings. There are now 55+ hectares that he exploits as owner and sharecropper. There is now a nice Crozes Hermitage Rouge being produced.
The Levets produce nothing but exceptional wines. The ’11 vintage has added a good deal of weight and structure during the elevage (still in demi-muid). The Journaries particularly is more muscular (70% stems now). The ’12s will be even better it seems although the harvest levels are more or less the same at 34 to 35 hl per hectare.
Note: Agnes Levet gave birth to her second child, a girl, in August.
On to the Maconnais – Beaujolais and the Jura in subsequent reports. I start the Cote d’Or – Chalonnaise part of the trip Monday and conclude it on Thursday. Friday is devoted to Alsace.”
-NIR