Domaine Le Roubine Vacqueyras 2014

The American wine press ‘discovered’ the wines of the Rhone Valley in the ’80’s, gushed about them in the ’90’s, dissed then in the ’00’s, and now have largely forgotten about them. No doubt, they’ve ‘discovered’ another wine region that has been making wine for 2000 years to brag on. (Croatian wines, anyone?) Or perhaps, Rhone producers have simply stopped sending critics free wine (no free wine, no 90+ scores?).

Regardless of the myopia of the wine press, wine retailers haven’t forgotten about wines from the Southern Rhone. We know that these wines still represent some of the best values in the world and that the sun-washed vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Rasteau produce wines that cross new/old world wine divides. Bright, bold, fresh, herbal, dense, peppery and fruit driven are accurate descriptions for these wines.

Domaine Le Roubine is a (relatively) new player in an old grape growing area. Their estate itself is in Gigondas, but Eric & Sophie Ughetto lease land in nearby Vacqueyras. Both areas are northeast of the famed Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and share the same soil type, planted to the same grapes, and the same climate. The resulting wine is adolescent Chateauneuf…all the flavor, minerality and forward fruit, without the muscles and weight. Or price.