Wine with Leslie: Rhône favourites to make you feel you're on a wine trip
With time to think during the latest lockdown, I have been reminiscing about some of the best wine trips I’ve been on over the years. One of my very first trips was in 2004 at exactly this time of year as a guest of Inter-Rhône which promotes the region. I remember the date as the trip coincided with the Bush-Kerry Presidential Election — I stayed up to watch the results on French TV and discovered to my surprise that one of my fellow wine writers was a big fan of George W Bush.
It was a hugely useful trip with the chance to visit iconic villages in the region such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Tain l'Hermitage and Gigondas; and meet such legendary producers as Alain Voge from Cornas who sadly died in September this year at the age of 81. Voge's wines were not imported here as they were much in demand in markets with more money to spend. He was quite taciturn on the day but the wines stood out — exotic, complex and intense. It was thanks to Voge and just a small handful of others that Cornas has such respect and commands such high prices these days.
