Le Raisin et L'Ange, Fable 2009

This is exactly the sort of red I like to drink in summer - well, to tell the truth most times of the year.

We ordered it on our way back from France when we stopped another night at the Auberge de Chassignolles from which we seem unable to keep away.

It's a sign, I suppose, of how much our tastes have changed that Harry Lester, the proprietor, wasn't sure if we would like it and offered to open another bottle if we didn't. (He said he would drink it himself as it was one of his favourite wines.) But it had that vivid life-enhancing fruit that natural reds - especially Syrah - tend to possess and I loved it. No sulphur though which may mean it varies from bottle to bottle - and Harry decanted it which I suggest you do too.

We drank it with buckwheat pancakes, stuffed with chard and goats cheese, with slow roast lamb shanks and a deconstructed, less-oily-than-usual ratatouille and with a selection of cheeses to which it stood up very well. 

The producer Gilles Azzoni of Mas de la Bégude doesn't seem to have a website but there's a good account of his winemaking philosophy here. He's based in St Maurice d'Ibie in the Ardèche just west of Montélimar. You can buy it in the UK from Gergovie Wines at I'm not sure what price but it shouldn't be too expensive. Just 16€ on the Chassignolles list.

Rating: Amber (see right)

Le Canon Rosé 2010, Domaine de la Grande Colline

It's scary to think how much someone's view of natural wine must be moulded by the first wine they drink. If it was Le Canon Rosé I'm not sure they'd persist.

I was given it to try by one of the staff at the Kensington-based wine merchant Roberson who - all credit to them - have added a number of natural wines to their upmarket range. It's made by Hirotake Ooka, a Japanese winemaker in Saint Peray in the northern Rhone valley who Roberson's rather nicely describe as 'devoutly natural' and is made from Muscat d'Hambourg. It has no additions of sulphur whatever including at bottling.

We followed the site's advice to decant the wine but it was still pretty challenging on Day 1 with that cidery edge that just isn't that appealing - to me at any rate. My husband is much more tolerant of it. By Day 2 it was much improved with a delicate rose petal floweriness coming through and by Day 3 bordering on charming. But would most customers persist that long? I don't think so. They want a bottle, of rosé at least, they can open and drink immediately. (My husband thinks I'm a philistine.)

A 'red' wine*, definitely. I must get this traffic lights symbol system going.

* I have this idea you shouldn't score natural wines but flag up how challenging they are. Green = indistinguishable from a conventional wine, amber = might make you pause for thought if you've never tried natural wines before and red, only for hard-core enthusiasts. Like my OH.

Saint-Véran and Syrah

We had friends over last night who are beginning to take an interest in natural wine so pulled out a couple of good bottles for them.

First off a Saint-Véran La Barnaudière 2007 (above) from Arnaud Combier who we visited in Burgundy roughly this time last year. It has that lovely pure acidity and minerality you get in natural wine, not unlike a premier cru Chablis, despite being so much further south in the Maçonnais. We drank it with a pasta bake made with ceps we brought back from the Auvergne and it was perfect.

Then a 2009 Syrah Vin de Pays de l'Ardèche from Hervé Souhaut we picked up from Chais Christine Cannac in Bédarieux. Souhaut, a bit of a cult winemaker whose wines we've been meaning to try for some time, worked with Dard et Ribo but now makes his own wine at Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in Arlebosc in the Ardèche.

Although just 12.19% (I love the ironic precision of that ABV) it was full of flavour with the violetty, smoky character that makes young syrah so seductive. And that syrah pepperiness of course.

Great bottles to convince someone why natural wine is worth drinking. And frankly, pure pleasure for us to drink too.

Both producers are stocked by Les Caves de Pyrène.

Dard & Ribo Crozes-Hermitage 2009

So I finally got to taste the much-hyped Dard & Ribo last night - one of four bottles I bought from The Sampler. (If four sounds a bit miserly let me tell you they're not cheap in the UK. The Crozes-Hermitage - which is what we were drinking - is £27.)

But it was absolutely worth it for the best Crozes I've ever tasted. Pure, live syrah, every sip was thrilling. It could have been young Côte Rôtie and absolutely vindicates the natural wine approach. A snap judgement but it struck me that Dard et Ribo are to Crozes what Lapierre was to Morgon - someone who makes you completely rethink your view of an appellation.

You can read all about them on the excellent Wine Terroirs blog here and on US importer Louis Dressner's site here.

Oh, and just for the record it was a fruit day . . .

Perrin Nature but how natural is it?

I was going to flag up what struck me as a bit of a bargain in the Co-op at the moment which is selling the Perrin Nature Côtes du Rhône for £6.99. That not only makes it £2 cheaper than their normal retail price of £8.99 but a full £4.50 cheaper than it costs in Oddbins (Unless you buy six bottles in which case you get a 20% discount but even then it's more expensive than the Co-op.) Given that it's organic and comes from the 2009 vintage you'd think you were onto a winner.

Hmmmm - I'm not so sure. It's curious. A big generous wine, certainly (14.5%), but oddly one dimensional. A bit flat and lacking in acidity. I thought it might be because it's 95% grenache which could make it a little unbalanced but I suspect the answer lies in the 'intriguing wine making process' to which the Oddbins website refers here.

Apparently the Perrins flash heat the grapes to 80°C for 30 seconds then cool them down to 20°C to 'extract maximum colour and aroma compounds'. It also apparently destroys bacteria and early oxidation. Sounds to me remarkably like pasteurisation which would account for its blandness.

Interestingly the back label suggests you should serve the wine at 15°C, presumably to zip it up a bit.

It confirms a nagging feeling I've had for a while that organic on a label is not enough. OK the process doesn't involve chemicals but it's not really in the spirit of organic winemaking is it? I just don't think you can regard this as a natural wine.

Domaine L’Anglore Terre d’Ombre 2008

This is one of the most amazing reds I’ve tasted this year made by Eric Pfifferling just outside Tavel. Not being rosé and being a mono-cepage it classifies as a vin de table but it doesn’t taste anything like you’d expect from a southern-Rhone grenache-based red. It’s far lighter (only 12.5%) and more perfumed - more like a Pinot Noir but a strange, exotic, floral, pinot that tastes of Turkish Delight and smells of deep red roses.

Pfifferling’s vineyards are farmed organically and he uses no artificial yeasts, enzymes or sulphites once the grapes are harvested. Apparently he used to be a bee-keeper. I can’t find the exact reference but my OH (who is deeply into natural wine) said he’d read that Pfifferling commented that you can’t control bees and shouldn’t try to control wine.

The only downside is that it’s almost impossible to get hold of. Caves de Pyrène which imports it has sold out of both the 2008s and ‘09 though it still appears to be on the list at their restaurant Terroirs.

Everywine.co.uk claims to have it for £96.59 for a case of six but may have equal difficulty sourcing it as they apparently don’t order a wine until they get an order themselves. And the Three Coqs in Bristol has it on their wine list at the time of writing. If you find it order it!

I've just discovered from the very helpful Mitchell Rabinowitz on Twitter that there are three shops in New York that stock Pfifferling's wines. Astor Wines and Chambers Street Wines have his Tavel and Cuvée des Traverses and De Vino's has his Cuvée de la Pierre Chaude