2010 L'Âme Soeur Seyssuel, Vin de Pays, Domaine Michel et Stéphane Ogier
Red | Ready, but will keep | Domaine Stephane Ogier | Code: 11195 | 2010 | France > Vin de Pays > VdP des Comtes Rhodaniens > VdP des Collines Rhodaniennes | Syrah/Shiraz | Full Bodied, Dry | 12.5 % alcohol
Scores and Reviews
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JANCIS 16.5+/20 |
The Producer
Michel Ogier is a relative newcomer to the top ranks of the wine-making world: up until 1980 he sold his entire crop, on the vine, to Messrs Chapoutier and Guigal. Since then, he has invested an enormous amount of time and capital in his well-situated 2½ hectare vineyard and now, handed over to his ambitious and likeable son, Stèphane.
The wines themselves are not the huge, structured beasts typical of some other Côte Rôtie producers. They tend more towards a silky elegance with soft, subtle tannins. However, they retain that incredible ability to age that is synonymous with the best Côte Rôtie.
The Grape
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
The Region
Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes is a sub-division of the broader regional appellation of Vin de Pays des Comtés Rhodaniens and encompasses wines produced in the Rhone valley.
Yves Cuilleron and Domaine Vins de Vienne (the Yves Cuilleron - Pierre Gaillard & François Villard joint venture) are the star performers in this Vin de Pays appellation, offering red and white wines from Syrah and Viogner. The wines are distinctly modern-styled yet filled with terroir character and show depth of fruit and powerful structure.
A schistous sister for the Côte Rôtie, ‘L’Ame Soeur’ is the fruit of Stéphane’s venture in his Vienne vineyard, which is located to the north of Ampuis in Seyssuel on the site of ancient Roman plantations. Closer geographically to the Côte Brune, the soils are in fact closer in character to those of the Côte Blonde; indeed Stéphane is of the opinion that ,as the vines become mature, they will prove to be even better. The 2010 is certainly very impressive, with a charming spicy nose and notes of bacon fat, raspberry and peat on the palate, all wrapped in silky tannins.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer, February 2012
Young, dynamic and handsome, Stéphane Ogier has had another good year, purchasing some more prime vineyards, making some fantastic 2010s and celebrating the birth of his first son, Marius. His wine-making philosophy is intriguing, minutely sensitive to the requirements of both the vintage and the parcel in question. As a generalisation he prefers new wood and destemming for the Côte Blonde, and older wood and less destemming in the Côte Brune. But there are always exceptions... and the wines are always exceptional...