Irish Rhone Wines
IRELAND IN THE RHONE
We've got Irish wine for you to sell mate. My boss in Melbourne announced to me one morning after he had returned from ProVine in Germany, one of Europe's premier meeting points for merchants and distriburs to catch up and get sloshed....and try wines. He seemed to think 'Irish wine' was hilarious as a concept. I started to explain that in fact Ireland had a rich history in winemaking and...Whatever mate. The wines are grouse, he's a mate of Stephane, we got a couple of palates, they'll be here in a couple of weeks, just sell them.
Grouse means good, and the Stephane was famous Rhone producer Stephane Ogier with whom we had a long relationship. The Irish wine was the first vintage of Les Deux Cols Cuvee Alize, made by Simon Tyrell. Apart from the terrific wine, a Syrah-led blend of Rhone varieties from near Estezargues in France, my boss had been charmed by the wine maker whom he reported as being as nice a guy as you can meet (though I have cleaned up that sentence significantly for publication).
When I moved back to Ireland it came as little surprise that the wine had been well established and in fact Simon Tyrell was as prominent a figure in the wine industry as you can get.
DREAMING OF THE RHONE
I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when Simon announced to his wife and business partner Emma that he wanted to become a wine maker. I am sure she wished he would just buy a sports car or something.
Emma and Simon had established Tyrell & Co. in 2003 and had grown it to become Ireland's leading specialist family run wine importer. The company focused on French wine and in particular the wines of the Rhone. It was rare to find a decent shop shelf or wine list that didn't stock their wares. Apart from being savvy operators, Tyrell's boasted some of the most prominent names in French wine making. To suggest that this whole wine making idea was a risk would be a great understatement, and that is before one considers the commitement and sacrifice required by the business and the family to study in Brighton while living in Ireland.
In truth this was a less rash decision and idea than it may have seemed on the surface. Simon was worried about the long term viability of fine wine from the vantage point of 2007 and a possible recession, and he was right.
Two years of late night and early morning flights to and from Bighton followed as Simon eventually emerged with a distinction in Viticulture & Oenology from Plumpton College. Eager to ferment something, Simon established a cider brand in 2011 called Craigies Cider (very successful, it was eventually acquired by O'Hara's Brewry) before getting his hands on some vineyard space and making the first vintage of his wine Les Duex Cols Cuvee Alize 2012. What has followed has been an exciting journey and evolution of ideas that, 10 years on, is only really in it's infancy.
THE OTHER COLS
Les Deux Cols means, the two hills. The other colt in the equation is Charles Derain. Charles is a French native who lives in Dublin and operates his own fine wine distributor, Nomad Wines. Like Tyrell's before it, it is rare to find a serious wine list devoid of some Charles' French classics. He count giants such as Pousse d'Or, Roumier and Ponsot in his stable amongst others.
Les Deux Cols were concerned with freshness, elegance and balance, but they also wanted to showcase the raw power of the South [of the Rhone] and express its unique terroir. The pair were interested in organic wine making and minimal intervention. Using their significant industry clout they managed to secure space and resources at La Cave des Vignerons d’Estézargues, the famous progressive co-operative in Avignon.
This time and experience, working alongside some of the Rhone's best wine makers, as well as experience with industry totems achieved thanks to long standing industry links provided Les Deux Cols with a supercharged period of education and development. They began to scout locations for their own vineyard, to make their very own wine.
A third Col was added in 2017. Gerard Maguire, owner of Ireland'd best destination wine store 64 Wine and creator of legions of wine geeks (including this one) came on board. The 3 cols expanded the sites and wine making facilities. Maguire was able to offer unique insight into the production of a wine that would sell as well as the viability and feasibility of something the 3 were interested in: natural wines.
We do not need another STSWine rant about the fallacy of so called natural wine and it's much abused meaning. Simon and Charles had from the start aimed to make their wines with minimal chemicals and intervention. This was at the time rather unusual. Their focus was to make a wine of the land, a wine that sings of it's time and place, etc etc. Oak must be in the background if used at all, and soil type is the key focus when it come to harvesting.
The upward trajectory in the wines has been astonishing since 2017. Chemins du Font was added to the range, as well as Zephr, a white . Suroir, a 100% Syrah (now discontinued) and the Ateliers des Sources range. Along the way the labels had a modern make over and the two hills were traded in for 3 trees, a motif to signify the new partner.
The excitement starts now. Experimenting with atypical varieties and bucking the traditional norms, the sense of freedom and belief amongst the winemakers is palpable and it is an exciting label to drink.
OAK, CLIMATE CHANGE, LIFE & COVID
20 obviously threw up significant challenges for the team. Producing a wine with 'minimal intervention' paradoxically requires the upmost attention and focus. While you are trying to let the vine and wine do it's thing, that requires that you are with it every inch of the way. Travel was difficult as was labour, not to mention an unrelated health issue predating Covid from which Simon thankfully made a full recovery. Perhaps a blessing in disguise for operations in the Rhone, new winemaking projects in Spain were halted.
Along with the minimum intervention and maximum effort paradox, another exists with regards to use of oak. As mentioned already, LDC wanted to minimise the oak in their wine. One can always make a bright wine matured in stainless steel for young drinking that shows no oak. The shelves are peppered with them. The real trick to fine wine making is achieving the textural and oxidative qualities of oak ageing without actrually showing any of the oak. This is one of the new frontiers of modern fine wine making: achiveing a wine that is made without chemicals and intervention, that utilises the best oak and achieves the resulting texture with balance, elegance and purity. In short: natural wine that does not smell like a fucking pet store.
Keen STSWine readers will tire of me saying that nobody that drinks, knows or appreciates wine can deny the existence of climate change. Burgundy used to regularly fail to ripen Pinot. Tasmania was once so marginal it could do little other than sparkling wine. The results are undeniable. I was surprised when Simon told me that the specter of climate change has not really changed wine making, it has just moved dates of harvests, altered pruning methods and added and canopy management.
Climate change is more profound than simply ading or altering jobs. To hear a Rhone wine maker saying "I would never plant Syrah again, not in the South" is incredibly jarring. The group have been moved to try different blends and varieties, and this is where the strength of the operation lies. There is no wine producing country in the world that shuns invention and innovation more than France. A slave to their incredibly rich wine tradition, methods and approaches will change very, very slowly. Ateliers 'Le Retour' demonstrates their heads up wine making. Unusually, a 100% Cinsault, it was prodcued and raised in stainless steel for it's first vintage, before being produced in (very) used oak in 2019. Putting weight on the wine in all the right places.
They are still a couple of years from enjoying, or more approriately 'discovering' the fruits of their labour in terms of planting on the new sites, but one suspects they will be at the forefront of a chapter in the book of Rhone.
