It's that time of year again. This week we will be running our favorite articles from Palate Press staff writers. Evan Dawson's always insightful wine writing for Palate Press often covers the Rhône and here he revisits the "old vines make better wines" marketing trope. On a 97-degree day in France’s Northern Rhône Valley, I
On a 97-degree day in France’s Northern Rhône Valley, I was standing at the top of a vertiginous parcel of vines with a chain-smoking winemaker. There wasn’t a single part of Laurent Courbis that seemed coached or “media-trained” or careful. He was the picture of authenticity. And then he said
It is a drizzly afternoon in late February when Stéphane Ogier drives me in his Range Rover to the top of a hillside overlooking the Rhône River and the small town of Seyssuel just north of Vienne. We bump along rutted, muddy farm lanes at the edge of a plateau
Pliny the Elder, the Roman author, was a fan of wines from the Rhône Valley. Something he wrote nearly 2,000 years ago struck winemaker Pierre Gaillard, a student of wine history, as a tip for finding something almost incredible today: unused Grand Cru-level terroir in the heart of French wine
I believe in the Tolstoy theory of history: great men don't really influence nations, but surf a tidal wave of societal change that was coming anyway. Thus it is with Robert Parker. Wine lovers spend a fair amount of time complaining about his malign influence. We want things he ignores,
Côte-Rôtie, one of the most remarkable appellations in the Northern Rhône region, is famous for its wines made from syrah, grown on a steep and sunny hill, very often with a splash of viognier. Or are they? Some producers are-read more-
Continued from Part I. After our whirlwind tour of Tain, we decided to stay close to home that evening, dining in the tiny restaurant in our hotel in Condrieu, La Réclusière. We chose the five-course tasting menu, awkwardly translated into-read more-
During our honeymoon, my husband Steve and I spent four days in the Northern Rhône. We’d had a week in Paris—identified during the planning stages as Most Romantic Honeymoon Destination Possible—a week spent eating, walking, sightseeing, eating, sleeping, and eating.-read more-