Annual Tavel Tasting - with Michel Bettane!

It's that time of year again, crunch time!  I have 10 days to finish the tastings and write-ups for the Bettane & Desseauve Grand Guide des Vins de France.  So I've been spending my days going over my notes from all of the tastings I've already done, tasting more wines from producers that have sent more samples and doing some last minute vineyard visits.  For some reason every year I write about my visit to Tavel, and this year will be no different.  Namely because this year Michel Bettane came down from Paris to participate in the tasting with me. 

Having Michel Bettane come to visit an appellation is no small event, he is one of the top ten, if not five, if not 3 wine tasters in the world.  Every time I taste with him I come away in awe of his amazing ability to evaluate wines in a very fair, honest and straightforward manner.  Tasting with Bettane in an appellation that is far from the uppity, high-pressure tastings of Grand Crus in other regions is a real treat because you get to see the his real personality come through.  Over lunch at the lovely restaurant "La Genestière"  in Tavel joined by several vignerons from the appellation and by Sandra Gay their public relations agent, Bettane told the story of his first visit to Tavel 25 years ago.  He visited the monks at Château de Manissy and fell in love with their rosé which, at the time, was aged in large old oak casks.  This type of élevage, Bettane insisted, made for a rosé with more depth and amplitude than today's rosés that are virtually all made in stainless steel or concrete vats.  He encouraged the winemakers present, not to change their styles, but to try making a small amount in the old style to sell as a limited production "reserve"  cuvée.  Doesn't hurt to experiment, right?

For the tasting of the 2008 vintage we were joined by Richard Maby from Domaine Maby who is president of the appellation of Tavel and Guillaume Demoulin of Château de Trinquevedel, who is in charge of tastings for the local growers union.  Being that it is a fairly small appellation and that wineries generally one produce one Tavel rosé we only had 30 wines to taste.  That meant that there was no hurry and we could all take our time and taste the wines together.  It was a very pleasant atmosphere with Bettane tasting next to me, discussing the wines while I took notes and gave scores to the wines since it is my responsibility to write the section on Tavel for the guide.

At the end of the tasting we got to chatting about how well Tavel rosés can age (amazingly they age quite well)  and before we knew it both Richard and Guillaume produced older bottles.  We tasted a 91 Maby that was still quite alive, notes of grass and what they call in French "feuilles mortes"  or dead leaves, not really a bad thing though it doesn't sound all that great, what was really surprising though, is that the wine still had a nice freshness, it wasn't oxidized in the least.  Then Guillaume brought out an 89 and 1970 Trinquevedel, one that his grandfather had made!  The 1970 was really quite a lesson in aging rosé, it's not something that you'd want to drink every day, but it was not dead, far from it in fact.  The wine was a deep coppery color, and there were notes of orange peel, minerals, caramel and walnuts.  It  was very similar to a Tawny Port, save the fact that it was dry.  We all decided that it would be great accompaniment to a walnut tart that was not super sweet, with just a hint of sugar.  What a special treat to have the opportunity to taste these rare wines!

There you have it, yet another amazing day in Tavel.  There's something magical every time I go there, I can't wait to see what next year has in store for me!

Comments

[Iris]

Nice to find the Rosé of Château de Manissy again. I visited the Monks also about some 20 years ago with our oenology-class and was impressed by their rosé - the first I liked, normally I'm more a red-wine lover... Nice to hear tthat they stillexiste, they told us about some difficulties with the nearby autoroute (or was it the TGV line?) - something which made their cellar tremble!

I found an aproaching rosé years later at Château des Estanilles in Faugères, where Louison made a Rosé from Mourvèdre, raised in casks and made to be aged - from time to time I open a bottle - they have this aging potential, I found in the Tavels at the time:-).

[Steve Edmunds]

Hi, Amy; In 1996, I stayed with my friend Romain Bouchard, in Valréas, for several days, and on the last night we had a big wine dinner and degustation, and began with the last bottle of Romain's 1969 rosé, from his vines there (Grenache, Syrah, and Gamay [!])
It was stunningly good, though beginning to get just a little long in the tooth. And then we had a '68 (horrible year)Tavel Canto Perdrix that was still not bad to drink, though nowhere near as enjoyable as the Valréas.
best
Steve Edmunds