2012 Chateau de Beaucastel en primeur

17 Oct 2013

The bottle cellar at BeaucastelWines of balance and poise

Even by August last year it was clear the Rhone was going to have the best fortune of all French wine regions in 2012. After a vine-killingly cold February - just one of the yield-reducing mechanisms of the vintage - and a cool wet early spring, flowering proceeded somewhat sporadically in wet and windy weather. But vignerons had to do a lot of work in the vineyards to balance canopy protection and the threat of mildew at this stage. The coulure (failure of flowers to turn into fruit) reduced yields heavily but as temperatures crept up the season advanced slowly and evenly. By the end of August ripening was accelerating and grapes were plump and with normal - not excessive - sugar levels. Finally, in September a long, slow harvest began in earnest for the reds, mirroring the extended flowering.

So what's the bloody wine like? Early tastings have shown us wines of definition and balance. It's easy to taste the difference between the different communes. Chateauneuf tastes like Chateauneuf, Gigondas like Gigondas and so on. The wines are elegant and very fine.

Despite (or perhaps because of) it's being mid-harvest, Marc Perrin popped across to London the other day to taste through the family's portfolio of 2012 southern Rhones. Their wines conform to the 2012 pattern and are detailed, delineated and focused. The Beaucastel Blanc was fresh, crisp, mineral and harmonious. There's greengage and apricot fruit and texture is rounded with saline mineral acidity. The whole thing only tails off slowly across a long finish. Coudoulet red shows blue fruit, has fine tannins and more than a hint of graphite minerality as the wine flows evenly across the palate. It's seamless, beautifully structured and finishes long. A pre-assemblage sample of Beaucastel showed sweet, ripe fruit, liqueur and fresh, a truly beautiful infant with great harmony and length. There's good intensity and a link to 2010 is betrayed by the freshness and minerality. The texture is generous and plump. /CW