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RHONE VALLEY
– BLENDING –
Views out over Château Isolette’s vineyards, between Bonnieux and Apt
in the Luberon appellation area
fine grain and delicate toast”, adds the property’s technical
director. At Isolette, oaky wines are set aside for a small
clientele of enthusiasts.
Current restructuring of Isolette’s vineyards implies
replanting Mourvèdre. Rouquet believes that adverse
weather is making Mourvèdre a great ally for red wines
because it is a late-ripener. The variety counterbalances
alcohol levels in the earlier-ripening Grenache, and
although Syrah seems to be adapted to drought conditions,
its alcohol content can be high, whereas Mourvèdre makes
a great blender.
The varietal trio Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre will
produce the red Rhone wines of the future, although leaf
removal and irrigation will be required to rein in alcohol.
At Château Isolette, everyone is busy replanting five
hectares of vines.
Château Isolette, recently bought by Polish investors,
is the oldest estate in the Luberon
THREE PRIORITIES FOR CÔTES DU RHÔNE
Denis Guthmuller is the chairman of the Côtes du Rhône
and Côtes du Rhône Villages producers’ organisation
and since 2014, he has also co-chaired the economic
committee at Inter Rhône, the regional wine marketing
board. Originally from Alsace, he has been farming forty
hectares in Sainte Cécile les Vignes, Vaucluse, with his wife
Florence since the late 1990s. His sense of public duty
quickly led him to a number of collective tenures. He was
chairman of the Cave Cécilia co-operative winery for many
years before it merged with the co-operative in Cairanne,
which he now co-chairs. He converted his family farm to
organic in 2009, and took a proactive role in establishing
the South-East France organic wine marketing board in
2019, which he also chairs.
Although his work at the head of the producers’ organisation
is a seamless transition from his previous tenures, Denis
Guthmuller has set himself several priorities. The first is
to boost winegrowers’ income through yields, a key factor
in profitability, while maintaining a high level of quality.
His second priority is to ramp up activities that favour
protection of the environment and biodiversity. His goal
is anything if not ambitious, and that is to make the
Côtes du Rhône appellation a national benchmark for
sustainability. He feels the Rhone climate is relatively
conducive to ethically-focused environmental practices
30 WINTER 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE