Mondragon is not a holiday destination. This little French town is situated south of Montélimar (world capital of nougat) and east of the famous Gorges de l'Ardèche through which I would thoroughly recommend a down-river "escapade" by kayak.
Now that tourists heading for the Côte d'Azur all take the autoroute, there is very little reason to stop at Mondragon except for......Beaugravière. Tucked away between the route nationale 7 and the Paris to Marseille railway line (fortunately the bedrooms have double glazing), Beaugravière is an unassuming little road-side restaurant with rooms that is known locally for its "menu aux truffes" and for its quite stupendous wine list. If this list was in a restaurant in London, New York or Hong Kong it would be impossible to get in, fortunately the residents of Mondragon seem unaware of the jewels that lie beneath their feet and we were able to book a table (and all three of the bedrooms upstairs) with ease just a few days in advance.
This is one of those places where you take a long time to order your food because you are too busy gawping open-mouthed at the wine list. To kick off with, there are 18 vintages of both la Mouline and la Turque and 24 different La Landonnes from Guigal. There are 23 vintages of Beaucastel and 10 of Rayas including the 1955 and 1959. In Hermitage there are 23 vintages of Chave and the La Chapelles go back through 16 vintages and include the 1949 and the 1929. Just off-piste in the Rhône valley there are also 6 vintages of white Trevallon and 17 vintages of the red - you can even have the fabulous 1990 in jeroboam!
There are pages and pages of great Rhône wines here from all the leading producers but another big surprise is the selection of top-name Burgundies. Does anyone know of another wine list in the world that features 85 different wines from Domaine des Comtes Lafon? Not only a vast array but all very reasonably priced. We went for the 2005 Genevrières at 150 euros. There are also 18 different white Burgundies to ponder over from Coche Dury. We decided to go for the 2005 Puligny Enseignères which was rich and opulent yet very precise with a wonderful backbone of lemon acidity. As good as the Lafon was, the Puligny was the more complete wine and it really did "hit us with its rhythm stick" (as Coche's late brother Ian would have said). If you want to drink Coche Dury, you'll be very lucky to find any at all in the UK but it does appear that most serious restaurants in France have access do it. We drank a Meursault Rougeot 2002 for 150 euros a few days later at a restaurant near Trevallon.
With such a vast choice of Rhône wines, we almost overlooked a fine selection of Domaine de la Romanée Conti. The 35 different wines listed start with the 1999 Vosne Romanée Premier Cru at a modest 200 euros.
Leaving aside all these great names, we went for a wine that I know I cannot find, for love nor money, anywhere else in the world. We ordered a bottle of Fonsalette Cuvée Syrah 1989 at 125 euros. By this stage, chef-patron and wine guru Guy Jullien had joined us for a glass and told us the story that Louis Reynaud (who ran Château Rayas from 1920) had bought Fonsalette in 1945 but was never a lover of the syrah grape (Rayas is 100% Grenache). In 1978 Reynaud sold Beaugravière nearly all his Fonsalette Syrah (unlabelled and uncapsuled) for cooking and I drank a bottle of this amazing wine on a visit here many years ago. Monsieur Jullien believes it to be one of the greatest syrah wines ever made. The 1989 certainly didn't let us down and, at twenty years of age, it is still a baby. We then ordered a bottle of the controversial 2003 Côte Rôtie Côte Brune from Jamet (Wine Spectator 96 points, Wine Advocate 86 points!) which was delicious and seriously underestimated by Mr Parker. Nevertheless, anyone trying these 2 wines blind would have said that the 1989 was younger than the 2003.
If you're ever driving from Paris south to the coast then Beaugravière is an essential stop-over for any wine lover. www.beaugraviere.com
PS - for those of you who might be wondering what the 2009 harvest is looking like in the Rhône Valley and Burgundy, the grapes looked in beautiful condition (and near to maturity) as I passed through the vineyards last week. Here is the rather impressive weather forecast for the rest of this week. Appararently the story is similar in Bordeaux where another 2005 is very much on the cards :-
| 08/09 | 09/09 | 10/09 | 11/09 | 12/09 |
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| Sunny | Sunny | Sunny | Sunny | Sunny |
| Max 29°C Min 17°C |
Max 29°C Min 17°C |
Max 29°C Min 18°C |
Max 29°C Min 19°C |
Max 29°C Min 19°C |
