Producer Article
Jean-Michel Gerin
Last edited on 6/28/2020 by dverfail
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Producer website - Read more about Jean Michel Gerin Rhone Wines
My previous visits with Jean-Michel Gerin have always started with an early morning, stomach-churning drive up into his vineyards in his mini-truck. This visit was different. We started with an early afternoon, stomach-churning drive up into his vineyards in his 1984 Renault, which he proudly showed only had 27,000 kilometers on it. I’ve never seen a gear shift that came out of the dashboard before. The only thing that topped the drive up was the drive down, the car groaning with each hairpin turn. Good times. In all seriousness though, it’s always great to get into the vineyards with Gerin. I’ve visited his parcel in La Viaillère now three years in a row. The first time they were rebuilding the terraces. Last year they were putting in the drainage system (run off on these steep slopes can be wild). This year the vineyard looks great, so good in fact, that Gerin will be making a separate La Viaillère cuvée from the 2007 vintage. We also looked at some hail damage (a highly centralized storm hit some of Gerin’s vineyards in June), and the vines that were hit had some damage to next year's buds. That means lower yields, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and Gerin knows he’s lucky the damage wasn’t worse. Nonetheless, despite all the difficulty in the vineyards in ’07, Gerin got wines with "huge polyphenols." A few samples tasted from tank (the wines underwent malo in tank for the first time ever here) showed gorgeous color and fresh, forward fruit notes. - James Molesworth, Wine Spectator
My previous visits with Jean-Michel Gerin have always started with an early morning, stomach-churning drive up into his vineyards in his mini-truck. This visit was different. We started with an early afternoon, stomach-churning drive up into his vineyards in his 1984 Renault, which he proudly showed only had 27,000 kilometers on it. I’ve never seen a gear shift that came out of the dashboard before. The only thing that topped the drive up was the drive down, the car groaning with each hairpin turn. Good times. In all seriousness though, it’s always great to get into the vineyards with Gerin. I’ve visited his parcel in La Viaillère now three years in a row. The first time they were rebuilding the terraces. Last year they were putting in the drainage system (run off on these steep slopes can be wild). This year the vineyard looks great, so good in fact, that Gerin will be making a separate La Viaillère cuvée from the 2007 vintage. We also looked at some hail damage (a highly centralized storm hit some of Gerin’s vineyards in June), and the vines that were hit had some damage to next year's buds. That means lower yields, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and Gerin knows he’s lucky the damage wasn’t worse. Nonetheless, despite all the difficulty in the vineyards in ’07, Gerin got wines with "huge polyphenols." A few samples tasted from tank (the wines underwent malo in tank for the first time ever here) showed gorgeous color and fresh, forward fruit notes. - James Molesworth, Wine Spectator