Hospice du Rhone 2007 in Review
(click here for the Video small or large format)

Where to begin. Hospice du Rhone 2007 seemed like the year for sommeliers. Person of the Year, sommelier, Dan Fredman. Chateauneuf du Pape seminar moderator, sommelier, Kelly McAuliffe. My wine of the event poured by sommelier and Spanish wine specialist, Herbert Monterrosa. Dinner on the final night with sommelier/winemaker Paul Lato. Like the trusted food tasters of some long lost dynasty their inconspicuous presence ensured each wine poured at the incredible seminars were of the highest order.

And the seminars were incredible, if our grandchildren get to sit and taste these wines when they are ready do we look to the future with envy or do they look back to us when we had these wines at so young an age with envy?

Everyone had their favourites, me too. The "Blinded by the Whites" featured my wine of the year last year. Some of the Chateauneufs were so tight I could feel my gums shrink and teeth shatter, one such wine was wonderfully accused of being a fruit bomb by Kelly McAuliffe (mastering the understatement without a hint of irony). My favourite Chateauneuf was the 2003 Le Vieux Donjon, 4 weeks of maceration in concrete tanks, the wine was loaded with interesting sensations and as much as I hate to say it tasted quite literally of pomegranate/cranberry and blueberry juice; the brightest fruit, the cleanest sensation. That does not mean that the others were of a lesser value, by no means. Grenache dominated the wines in ways grenache has never been attempted here in Santa Barbara, though I'm thinking we should be looking harder at Ethan and Kenneth-Crawford as two examples of winemakers using Ballard Canyon fruit to get ahead of the fray and at least catch up to Steve Beckmen. These were no pinot-tilting grenaches but big, bold, uncompromising tongue vices.

The barrel tastings had the same effect, by Friday evening in fact my tongue was likely to be used as a spare tire in case I got a flat on the way back to my friends house.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The other seminars, "Rhone around the World" and "It's only Natural" introduced wines from areas of lesser known regions of Rhone style wines, Chile, Italy, Oregon, Argentina and even Baja. Dumol and L'Aventure featured roussanne, viognier, syrah and mourvedre in stiff portions. Each wine in each seminar was a thoroughbred, no lightweights here. In fact we are likely to see a lot of changes in winemaking practices in the next few years. Longer maceration, more natural yeasts, concrete tanks to name a few. Those who attended saw what can be done and done effectively and confidently. These wines were built like the Great Wall of China; longevity, breadth, strength, richness, a show of power and delicacy.

The Grand Tasting on Saturday afternoon was mostly work. I had videoed most of Friday but conducted no interviews, I wanted something spontaneous, nothing preconceived, no scripting and little prompting. Good honest views can only be gotten from the spur of the moment. The first video produced highlighted that. Also my plan was to capture anything left of the glow from the previous HdR, capture it I did. The lighting inside the hall was positively screaming a golden glow from Santa Barbara. As you will see, all the SB winemakers wanted to look at the French wines but some were looking at other areas too including Australia and Oregon.

My wine of the year was the 2004 Bodegas El Nido, Clio from the Jumilla appellation, a blend of 70% monastrella and 30% cabernet sauvignon from blinding white chalk filled vineyards in Spain.

Many thanks to everyone who organised this years' event, and to all the winemakers for bringing a blistering array of juice.
To round this up I'll mention something noticed by a sommelier: Over a thousand people converged for a full weekend of drinking, walking around with crystal glasses in their hands and consuming an overt amount of alcohol. Such equations usually lead people to assume the wrong impression, but no, this was a civilised, well managed and attended event with no distateful behaviour. The Hospice du Rhone is all about appreciation, an appreciation of the grape, the juice, the winemaker, the appellations and each other. An event not to be missed and if you get to the end of my video, in the inimitable words of Yves Gangloff "It's funky".
(click here for the Video small or large format)