A Class of Their Rhone - Domaine Ferme Saint-Martin

Some recent driblets of watery sunshine and I was all prepared to banish the reds in the back of the cupboard (my soi-disant wine cellar) and unleash the blinking pinks into the light of day. However, one doesn’t have to slug back garishly-hued wines to experience seasonal smiles and Provencale mirth. A trio of red wines from our new agency Domain Ferme Saint-Martin demonstrate that soft-fruited reds can be fun and serious at the same time; the sort of pleasure that makes you think about the way you appreciate wine.

Domaine Ferme Saint-Martin is situated in Suzette in the upper part of the Beaumes-de-Venise. The vineyard work is free of chemicals and the estate has organic certification. Their philosophy is encapsulated thus:

The quality of grapes is paramount and determined by triage in the vines and on a table at the winery. All wines are fermented with natural yeasts. The Terres Jaunes is from vines grown on the Triassic limestone that dominates the terroir of Beaumes-de-Venise. The yields are a moderate 35-38 hl/ha of Grenache (75%) and Syrah (25%). After a tri de vendange, and total destemming there is a15- 20 day maceration. After a short period in vat, the wine is bottled unfiltered with a very small dose of sulphur. It has an intense ruby colour and powerful garrigue-scented nose of pepper and spice and typically mouth-filling flavours. This is a slow-burner: the fruits are soft and ripe with enough pepper to allay that puddin’ and jam excess; the wine then moves into the animal realm acquiring distinctive meaty aromatics and back notes of balsam, roasted herb and creosote. It’s 14%, but nifty for its size. I drank it with a stir fry (sliced steak, red onions, chilli, garlic, pak choi, sesame and bean sprouts) and the combination was very happy. My final mouthful of the wine was a thick sludgy-slick of sediment - I like my terroir in granular form.

The Cotes du Ventoux vineyards are situated on gravel soils in St Hyppolyte le Graveyron. The south-facing vines are 20-45 years old. La Gérine (Grenache/Carignan blend) undergoes a semi-carbonic maceration without sulphur and using indigenous yeasts. The grapes are lightly trodden by foot and, after vinification, the wine is bottled without filtration and with a very light dose of sulphur. An elegant racy wine that reveals lovely purity with dark berry fruits on the nose and aromas of wild bay-leaf and roasted herb to give the palate an extra dimension.

The baby Cotes du Rhone is produced in the commune of Suzette from parcels of vines not classified as Beaumes de Venise and from young vines just entering production. The yields are still relatively low (45 hl/ha). A blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Cinsault, this is a wine very much on the fruit with soft confit fruits and a gentle dusting of pepper. The colour is entrancing, the bonniest purple imaginable, and you don’t need to dip your beak very deep into the glass before you encounter some booming primary fruit aromas: think super-ripe blackcurrants and blueberries, even wild raspberries – a lush nosegay by any standards. The wine sashays happily across the palate in that just-fermented-juice-on-the-loose fashion. It may not be an “archi-textured” wine, but its cheery naturalness and spankingly sapid fresh fruit (12.5% allied with a good acidity sends it carelessly sloshing down the hatch.) I would serve this fresh, even chilled, when the weather warrants it, with some thyme-encrusted garlic-studded lamb chops and masses of potatoes roasted in goose fat.