Jimmy's Northern Rhone Part 2: Condrieu, Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph & Côte-Rôtie

In April of this year once again WLWS founder Jimmy Smith jumped into his 43-year old VW campervan and headed to the splendid Northern Rhone valley on an epic quest. A quest to seek out the best wines of this exceptional area and to bring them back to create some specialist masterclasses. And so Jimmy's Northern Rhone specials were born – and with such an abundance of high quality wine, he could have easily created a 3 or 4 part series of specialist tastings instead of the normal 2 part series!

In this second part we will discover the rich whites of Condrieu made from Viognier (both a dry and sweet version), and both vibrant and complex reds made from Syrah such as Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. With producers such as Jean-Luc Colombo, David Reynaud and Pierre Gaillard this is really a fantastic snap-shot of the top of the drops in the Northern Rhone.

Wines on Tasting (9):

Yves Cuilleron 'Les Chaillets' Condrieu 2012
David Reynaud 350m Saint-Joseph 2012
Pierre Gaillard 'Clos Cuminaille' Saint-Joseph 2012
Cave de Tain Crozes-Hermitage, 2011
David Reynaud 'Entre Ciel et Terre' Crozes-Hermitage, 2011 (no added sulfur wine)
David Reynaud 'Les Croix' Crozes-Hermitage, 2012
Jean-Luc Colombo 'La Divine' Côte-Rôtie 2010
Pierre Gaillard 'Esprit Blonde' Côte-Rôtie, 2012
Pierre Gaillard 'Jeanne-Élise' Condrieu 2012 (sweet wine)