Day 2 in the Rhone - The South, By Jason Busby

As always an early start with emails at 6am and breakfast at 7.30am then our first tasting at Grand Veneur with Christophe Jaume, the charming joint owner of the estate with an array of Chateauneuf du Pape (CNP for future reference) Blanc and Rouge amongst many other appellations. To mirror the north, quantities may well be down on the norm, but quality is definitely fine. My sort of vintage where there is power but with elegance and pretty fruit, quite often blue fruits which shows the brilliance of our growers and winemakers and a good growing season. 

Being on time for Christophe should have set the day up nicely but tasting nine wines and chatting lots, then buying a magnum or CNP for dinner led to a frantic Scottish navigator getting Sat Nav 'Doris' in a spin and sending us on a few wild goose chase. We met Ferme du Mont at their house in the middle of the blustery plain on the outskirts of Orange to taste an amazing array of wines with sublime quality from a Marsanne/Viognier blend to one of the best Cotes Du Rhones I've tasted: in its youth but impressive all the same. Onto CNP with silky elegance.

The third appointment of the day to the other side of Orange was Domaine de Cristia where we’re now running an hour late but luckily caught Baptiste just after his lunch to taste through a reduced range of seven wines showing the typicity of their Terroir with Baptiste’s modern winemaking along with a few new cuvees of note. Keep an eye out for an offer…

A few failed attempts to grab a sandwich on route to Domaine de Caillou where we were only a little late to meet the charming Bruno Gaspard, one of my favourite owners Sylvie Vacheron (only briefly as they were sending an order out) and finally the conductor of the tasting Aude. Oh Aude, beautifully petite and eloquent, sending our Scottish navigator into orbit. Not sure his tasting notes will be readable or for the under 18s to be honest!

Another lucky 13 list of wines where they never fail to impress and innovate with a new natural wine which worked for me whereas most don't. Onto one of my all time favourites and often on the Busby dinner table is Bouquet des Garrigues (always in magnum!).

Now approaching 4.30 lunch was fast become dinner but a quick supermarket stop to get a soggy sandwich on our way to Lirac for Domaine de Mordoree. Almost pitch black with sleet coming down and everyone's noses red from the cold not the wine, we arrived to be met by the brothers Delormes and their warm honest approach to wine and business. A short tasting of fine elegant wines including white, Tavel Rosé and tremendous reds. Lirac being another chez Busby regular.

Tired from a frantic day and still catching up from yesterday we managed half an hour in the hotel to sort emails and the usual before a quick beer aperitif then dinner armed with our magnum of Grand Veneur CNP. I choose the starter that my colleagues had the night before which was lovely and matched the cheeky white we had. All fading from the last two days we managed three courses and most of the wine to crawl back to the hotel for one last restless sleep before Day 3.

Written by Jason Busby, Director