Domaine du Chapitre
ST-ANDEOL
Domaine du Chapitre’s St-Andéol is the kind of understated wine that doesn’t try to catch your eye in a line-up, but it’s one you find yourself going back to at the end of a tasting and wanting to drink. It’s a wine that has something to say for those prepared to listen.
For such a self-assured wine, I was expecting it to be the product of centuries of gradual nipping and tucking, but the Dorthe family have only devoted their land to wine since the 1970s.
It’s the culmination of two factors that have helped to propel them forward: a new generation and a new appellation. Frédéric Dorthe joined the domaine in 2000 after studying in Beaune and training in Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu, and the birth of new local appellation Côtes du Rhône Villages St-Andéol in 2017 has helped generate a renewed focus on quality and terroir here.
From Dorthe’s range, it’s the piquant red Domaine du Chapitre that places me immediately in this southern tip of the Ardèche, and his aromatic white Vin de France Exsultate is just as memorable.
Domaine du Chapitre, Côtes du Rhône Villages St-Andéol 2017 92
N/A UK www.domainechapitre-ardeche.com
Darkly coloured but not opaque, with brambly fruits on the nose underscored by Szechuan pepper. On the palate, it is rounded and elegant, spicy again, not overly full, and finishes dry and grippy. Good acidity here, well balanced, with good inner-freshness and salinity. The finish could be longer perhaps, but this is nonetheless a refreshing and satisfying wine. Drink 2021-2025
Alc 14.5% D
Matt Walls is a Decanter contributing editor and the Decanter
World Wine Awards Rhône Regional Chair. His latest book, Wines
of the Rhône (Infinite Ideas, £ 30), has just been published, and for a limited time, European readers can receive a 40% discount off the cover price using the code RHONEDECA40 at www.infideas.com
(US readers please visit www.infiniteideas. directfrompublisher.com)