Cote Roannaise......won over by gamay!

After a promised trip to the French haggling world of brocantes ( translate: jumble sale with less shit) we happened upon an area just west of what I would call Southern Burgundy called Cote Roannaise. Now to be clear, I have never been a fan of Gamay: in fact I usually have a unbridled loathe for most things beaujolaisesque. (new word perhaps) Yet today I would be pleasantly surprised. In fact other than geographical similarity and the shared use of the "house" grape I would be hard pressed to group the two areas in the same breath i.e. I really rather enjoyed these!

10.12 am and we stumble on to our first vineyard, Domaine de Palais, run by Yann et Sylvie Palais. Unfortunately the proprietors were sensibly away on holiday, I say unfortunately but it was a pleasant surprised to be taken in to the cellars by a most accommodating chap named Fabrice. Ma caught him in his pj's eating his cereal so we had a few minutes wait until he opened up for us. Fully dressed he showed us round and gave us the chat on the domain's new ideas and was particularly enthused about their new plantings of Viognier and Syrah across from the tasting rooms. These plantings are incredibly rare for this far north but as the vines are so young (between 3 and 10 years) it remains an open question as to their eventual commercial success. They had two rose wines to try and three Gamay wines, all very reasonably priced with not a hint of over extracted fruity flavours that for me, typify entry level Beaujolais. Still quite simple but very honest.

http://www.domainesdespalais.com/

Then on to the other end of the region (20 mins by car) and we landed on the doorstep of Domaine Fontenay run by Simon and Isabelle Hawkins. No pyjamas this time, just a friendly dog to greet us, swiftly to the tasting room where we were shown his entire range. Similar to Domain de Palais he produced mainly rose and Gamay but also was experimenting to his delight with Viognier and also Chardonnay. His 09 Viognier will be vendage tardive due to a small lake side noble rot friendly microclimate. His rose was phenomenal and my favourite of the tasting, he was producing oaked and light Gamay with both rustic and powerful character and a pink sparkler using an ancient fermentation technique. He alerted us to his minimalist approach to wine making yet the purity of his wines showed an obvious passion for detail (no vin de planche ici). Will let you know more as we drink more, left with a few cases. Review of my favourite red below.......

2007 Domaine du Fontenay Cote Roannaise la Reserve du Chanoine
Wine Advocate # 178Aug 2008
David Schildknecht
87

Hawkins’ 2007 Cote Roannaise La Reserve du Chanoine is, if anything, even more distinctive than his rose. Here is a completely dry red wine of only 11.5% alcohol, and while it is light, it’s by no means thin or under-ripe in flavor. Ripe tomato and herbs along with pungent flowers in the nose stake out the basic territory, but surprising notes of toasted nuts and roasted meat well up on the soothingly-textured palate, leading to a low-key but pleasingly long finish. One could drink a lot of this, and I’m looking forward to an opportunity to test its versatility.Englishman Simon Hawkins seems determined to lift from obscurity the tiny Cote Roannaise (situated near the headwaters of the Loire, west of Beaujolais, and planted entirely with Gamay).http://www.domainedufontenay.com/