Go north, young man, the Rhône awaits
Year 15, No. 06
Highlights: Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2025 | Gigondas 2025 | Cairanne 2025
Having lived north and south of Barcelona (as well as ‘in’), I’m always intrigued by the fact that no matter which direction you’re heading, when going to Barcelona, you’re always going ‘down’ when speaking to locals. I’m on a one-man mission to change this as well as introduce the much-needed idiotic/idiotico to Catalan and Castilian as only having idiota to use, pales in the face of stupidity which is now upon us.
My efforts to date on all linguistic fronts have unfortunately been futile and thus everyone still goes ‘down’ to Barcelona. That is, they did until Monday, the 28th of April where no one was going anywhere in all of Spain and Portugal due to the massive power cut or apagón in Spanish. If not trapped in a Metro or elevator, people dealt with the blackout reasonably well as it was thankfully less than 24 hours. We’re still waiting to hear what the hell happened given that current explanations seem largely based on it being a “disturbance in the Force”.
If you want to read a ‘mostly true’ take on how the day well, please have a read of ‘The Iberian Cut’. (*)
Of course what helped a great deal, as it often does, was the weather. That was a glorious spring day in April so we were neither too hot nor too cold and whiled away the day like 50 million Goldilocks, sans mobile coverage. The majority of people simply took an unexpected day off, having beers with friends by mobile phone flashlight.
Like everyone, I was a bit shocked initially, as those running things love to say, that Spain has “one of the safest and most advanced” electrical systems in the world. Looking back, the warning signs had been there in the days leading up as when there’s instability in the grid, my solar array cuts out for safety reasons. As I pointed out on Bluesky, I had enough electricity that day for myself and 2-3 neighbors, but couldn’t use it. Instead, while there was daylight, I caught up on some books I still need to review. Ultimately, the outage delayed but thankfully didn’t derail publication of the four reports from my annual trip to the Southern Rhône this year.
Now available as the reports for: Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2025, Gigondas 2025, Cairanne 2025, and Southern Rhône 2025. This is my largest coverage to date, totalling nearly 500 wines tasted and rated during a very busy week. It was so busy in fact that next year I’m definitely going to lengthen my time spent in the Provence region in order to adequately cover it. I readily admit that this is probably one of the most wonderful ‘obligations’ anyone can have.
The overall reports are available to all subscribers, but to access to scores and tasting notes, one will need the Classic or Pro levels.
Hopefully the power continues to be on wherever you are in the world and the spring (or fall for my Southern Hemisphere readers) is being tremendous to you.
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) Free to read
The Featured Reports
Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2025
The original French appellation (no, really!) that’s still producing incredible wines during changing times.
Gigondas 2025
Don’t call it CdP Junior under any circumstances as they’re now making their own style of wines these days and doing it very well.
Cairanne 2025
A softer side of the Southern Rhône, there’s a great deal to enjoy in these delicate wines which were elevated to ‘cru’ status only nine years ago.
Southern Rhône 2025
A grab bag of rather interesting bits and pieces that don’t fit into the larger appellations, but are still very interesting for a myriad of reasons.
And now this
When on an island and you want a cocktail, sometimes you just end up enjoy a mainland Portuguese sparkling wine, right?
And of course if you missed the debate, there’s always time to catch up on how a wine writer might not need credentials, but most definitely needs a wine education. (*)