Stunning Domaine les Hautes Cances
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The rocky, hillside vineyards surrounding Cairanne in Provence
"2005 Rhones - Best in a Generation - 2005 delivers amazing quality up and down the Rhone Valley." - Wine Spectator November 30, 2007
No one should miss the 2005 Rhone wines. No one should miss this Hautes Cances.
Les Hautes Cances is amazingly rounded and forceful. Herbs and red fruit float from the glass and it just says, "Provence". France' beautiful wine region in the south.
Anne-Marie Astart's great-grandparents created the property in 1890. The land passed down through the family (with all the grapes going to the local coop) until to it passed to Anne-Marie.
Her husband Jean-Marie decided to give up his medical career to farm the family land and vinify his own wine. They named it Domaine les Hautes Cances. In Provencal this means "the end of the vines," the place where the tractor turns around and maybe your life changes.
Jean-Marie quickly converted his vineyards to Agriculture Biologique (they don't use chemicals or pesticides) and everything is done in a natural, non-intervetion way. This not only reflects their deep desire to protect the environment but also allows the maximum expression of authentic terroir.
Jean-Marie then built an all new vat room and winery into the hillside for natural temperature control. His vinification is done using gravity to minimize the impact on the grapes along their journey into the vat. No pumping. The place is absolutely eat-off-the-floor pristine. Jean-Marie has a singular passion when it comes to winemaking and it shows in his wine.
I don't know how Anne-Marie did it, but she served us a four course meal right in the small tasting room in Cairanne (without a kitchen) on our most recent visit, while we uncorked the full range of Domaine les Hautes Cances wines. The veal stew was incredible. The wines as well.
Looking at my notes, I see amid a splotch of stew the words, "Powerful! Balanced." "Perfectly extracted!" I'm talking about the Hautes Cances Cotes du Rhone Tradition 2005 red.
The Hautes Cances vines average about 50 years old. The soil is the magic clay-limestone mix that drains from the top and yet harbors water deep in the earth to nourish the vines during times of drought, which are frequent in the southern Rhone. The cepage "blend" is: 34% Syrah, 19% Grenache, 19% Carignan, 15% Cinsault, 13% Mourvedre. There is severe selection in the vineyard so only the ripest and most comely grapes make it to the vat. This is rare for Cotes du Rhone wines but normal here at Domaine les Hautes Cances.
It was also in this beautiful and pristine winery that I had my first drop of Col du Debat - Cairanne. This is Jean-Marie's tete de cuvee (top of the line). It is from a special parcel in Cairanne on the top of a slope with perfect drainage and exposure to the sun. The vines are 50 years old. The wine is raised for 12 months in oak barrels. The product is a wine that is expressif and concentrated. It is easily the equivalent of a fine Chateauneuf-du-Pape with its concentration and complexity.
Many of Jean-Marie's wines have found their way into The Wine Advocate, Guide Hachette, and La Revue du vin de France. Of course, Jean-Marie's wines are not fined or filtered.
The yields are about 18 hectoliters per hectare, which is insanely low. The average in the area is about triple that. There are only about 8,000 bottles of Col du Debat made each year. That's about 650 cases for the entire world to fight over.
If you love Rhone wines as I do or want to see why they are some of Frances's best values do not miss these wines. Cynthia Hurley
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