James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

The Society's chairman, Colin Wagstaff, asked me to present a selection of Southern Rhone wines last night which, of course, I was pleased to do. The venue is the upstairs room of a pub in Dulwich Village with around 35 or so members present. They like to take a break half-way through for cheese etc and, having recently returned from the Rhone, I decided this provided a good opportunity to slip in a few "en primeur" wines. Starting with a couple of whites, Domaine des Anges' regular bottling from 2009 was well received because of its tasty fruit but, perhaps even more, behind the fruit lay a good structure which, now Ciaran is moving towards organics, is more apparent. This was followed by Xavier Vignon's white "Debut" (or, simply, "Xavier") which is atypical, having a Chardonnay base (actually, it's not really a Rhone wine; rather a vin de table, originating from both the Rhone and the Languedoc. Impressive though but some of us felt it...

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Christophe has had a meteoric decade, from newcomer fresh out of college to president of his local syndicate (Signargues - and he was one of the reasons why this village was promoted in the first place), father of two and winemaker extraordinaire. Whilst his Cotes du Rhone remains one of our very best sellers (it is, perhaps, the most versatile wine on the list - we have enjoyed it with seafood, curry and everything in between) and his new Chateauneuf is heading for the top table, the wines in between can get overlooked. A foolish thing to do. Tonight, I am opening the 2007 CDR Villages "Cayenne" which could easily pass for an oaked Gigondas at around twice the price. That said, it has much more black raspberry character than many I tasted on my recent visit to the Caveau des Vignerons in Gigondas. It's bursting with fruit and has a nice layer of oak lurking in the background. This will become even more integrated in time but I doubt...

Got into a bit of a scrap with someone over restaurant mark ups. First, as a supplier to a small number of restaurants, I have some insight to how and why they price wines as high as they do (much of it comes down to our unwillingness to set foot in an establishment that would charge us £40 for a steak) and, partly because of this, would rarely go for the house wine. I do like the idea of restaurants that impose a maximum mark-up per bottle so that the more you pay, the better value (ie. a £10 bottle for £25 or a £30 bottle for £45). The debate highlighted the fact that most people calculate gross profit in different ways. For me it is this: assume the restaurant wants 70% (not unknown) and pays £10 for the wine. In that case the bottle will be listed for £40 (£40 less 20% VAT then take off 70% of this brings you back to £10). So, it is taken from the top price and not, as some think, a 70% mark up of the original price which would be a mere £20.40 including VAT - that way, the GP at...

What a place to spend Christmas and New Year in! We came with friends who have returned to London for New Year and the only disappointment has been the lack of snow on Mont Ventoux on Christmas Day. Never mind; a delicious capon and all the trimmings that all four adults demanded from their own childhoods made up for this. The weather has been reasonably kind too - whereas it is barely above freezing at home, we have seen temperatures of up to 17 degrees (although it was minus seven on the mountain so, perhaps, not such a bad thing there was no snow). The wines I have tasted from 2009 have been exceptionally good. I don't remember 2007 being any better. Critics who have suggested this is, perhaps, only a four star vintage compared with the 2007's five stars may be right of course. I can only judge it by what has passed my lips and, given the quality of the estates I have been fortunate enough to befriend over the years, I won't be passing these up either personally or pro...

My final professional stop of the trip, Domaine Bressy-Masson is one of the superstar estates in Rasteau (the others are Soumade and Coteaux des Travers ). Marie-France Masson is handing over the winemaking to her son, Paul-Emile but still likes to welcome visitors. Not many wines to taste today as only one Rasteau made in 2008 (Souco d'Or) and too little Gloire in 2009 to be worth tempting me with apparently (a shame as this is one of my favourite Rasteau wines). We started with a wine I have rarely considered properly. A CDR at more or less the same price as Christophe Coste's excellent Domaine de la Charite would be, at best, duplication in most vintages. However, Marie-France's 2009 Cotes du Rhone , a blend of 70% Grenache with 20% Carignan and 10% Syrah and no oak has a strong, fruity nose, good body and structure with a long finish. More Rasteau than CDR and very full for the appellation. This will be a lovely wine to enjoy over the next three or four years. The...

Christophe Coste was barely 20 when we first met. He had recently taken over his grandfather's estate, Domaine de la Charite , in Saze, to the west of Avignon where he made some good wines from the Cotes du Rhone and Villages appellations. Now, his village, Signargues, has been promoted to a named village, he is president of the sydicate, he is married to Sandrine with whom he has two young daughters and he now makes a dozen or so wines including one from a recently acquired hectare of old-vine Grenache in the Gallimardes sector of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Not a bad decade! If all that isn't enough, Christophe made the only wines outside Chateauneuf in 2008 which I can honestly say I would be happy to stack my own cellar with. His 2008 CDR Villages Signargues "Bastien" is packed with kirsch and garrigues, very full with great texture and length. A superb wine for the difficult vintage. Even better, the 2008 CDR Villages Signargues "Cayenne" is more or les...

Robert Charavin of Domaine des Coteaux des Travers is one of the people I have been working with since I started up and we have got to know each other quite well in that time with only one thing getting in the way: his non-existent English/my lousy French. This time, I met with his new assistant Lucie who does speak English (although she charmingly pronounces grapes as "grap"). Two big developments: first, Rasteau is now a Cru alongside Gigondas, Chateauneuf etc so it no longer needs to include Cotes du Rhone Villages on the labels. An interesting development because (a) Cairanne still can't do this even though it has a longer history of top tier wineries (apparently it has missed the boat and won't be able to apply now for a couple of years) and (b) there will, inevitably, be some confusion with the vins doux naturels which are also simply AOC Rasteau. The sensible thing will be for VDN producers to mark this clearly on the bottles but, as I undestand it, there...