Isabelle's thoughts on Rochette:
The Ardèche (in the Rhône region of France) is a hotbed of natural wine producers, including the likes of Gilles and Antonin Azzoni, Gérald Oustric, Anders Frederik Steen, Sylvain Bock and Andrea Calek (all growers with wines worth exploring). I first met Thomas and Jean-Daniel when visiting the area in August 2015 where I tasted their 2014 vintage, including the lovely Rochette (which unlike this current vintage was a lot waxier, honeyed and a lot funkier). It has been amazing to follow their development over the past few years. They went from producing a little bit of wine but mostly selling their grapes to fellow natural wine producers, to producing more and more accomplished wines. Grenache Blanc is a fantastic grape, wonderfully adapted to Ardèche’s hot, dry, Mediterranean climate. It is also incredibly versatile, capable of producing a vast range of different styles, from nutty, full-bodied, age-worthy examples to refreshing, thirst-quenching, linear wines like this Rochette. A fun drink to celebrate the tail end of summer with a picnic - its white stone fruit notes would work well with a goat’s cheese quiche.
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