Cellier des Dauphins

Hubby and I have been enjoying Cellier des Dauphins wine for many years. Our must do on holidays in France with my dad when our children were young was dinner at Flunch.

Flunch is a self service restaurant found within supermarket complexes in most large cities and towns. It caters really well for children with their meals including an ice cream and a toy .... we still have a Flunch kite!

However we are not the kind caring parents my above paragraph portrays .... our reason for eating at Flunch was because their wine was Cellier des Dauphins. Hubby, Dad and I looked forward to our Flunch meal and red wine, always a highlight.

Dinner at Flunch 

A number of years later, enjoying Cellier des Dauphins in France and bringing many bottles home in the meantime,  we met Jo Thompson at a wine fair in London. Jo is owner/director of Belleville Marketing who promote this superb French wine here in the UK.

In 2016 as part of our superb holiday in the Cotes du Rhone (Visan to Chateauneuf-du-Pape) Jo kindly arranged a wine tasting for us with Cellier des Dauphins. What a superb tasting it was, having enjoyed their wine for many years we felt very privileged to have a private tasting. You can read about our amazing day on my Cellier des Dauphins dedicated blog page.

Les Dauphins is the UK labelling for Cellier des Dauphins so for a number of years we have been very pleased to be able to buy at home. However the Cellier des Dauphins label will now be the UK branding and last week Hubby and I joined Jo at Noize Restaurant in London to meet Laurent Paré, Cellier des Dauphins new Chief Oenologist.

It was lovely to meet Laurent and talk about
our favourite French wine and our holidays.

Another great evening with Jo

Noize Restaurant was a super venue, their cellar a perfect venue for tasting French wine. Throughout the evening they served amazing canapes; pork, prawns, cheese gougeres and mushroom palmiers.

Based in Tulette Cellier des Dauphins has been a wine co-operative since 1967 with 2,300 winegrowers and 12,500 hectares of vines covering around 20 appellations including many of the Cotes du Rhone named villages.

Our evening's tasting began with Les Dauphins Cotes du Rhone Blanc made with Viognier and Grenache Blanc. A clean white wine with a floral nose and delicious citrus finish.

Les Dauphins Blanc

Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Blanc is also a Viognier Grenache Blanc wine but with Marsanne and Roussane. This wine was very elegant, a lovely rounded wine with flavours of apricots.

Both white wines were superb, great examples of white Cotes du Rhone and both very much enjoyed.

Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Blanc

The first red in our tasting, Les Dauphins Rouge, is made from Grenache Noir and Syrah. It was full of ripe dark fruits with a hint of spice on the finish. This wine is very similar to the wine we used to drink in France, a memory in every sip.

Les Dauphins Rouge

Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Rouge is a full bodied Syrah Grenache wine with soft tannins full of black fruits and a long comforting finish. In the 16th Decanter World Wine Awards this wine scored 97 points and was awarded the Platinum Medal.

Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Rouge

Vinsobres, one of the named villages, is made with Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. This village rises giving altitude to its vineyards. It's a wine full of cherry and black currant flavours with hints of spice and an edge of vanilla.

Cru des Cotes du Rhone Vinsobres 

Puymeras and Plan de Dieu are two of Cellier des Dauphins wines that feature photographs of the wine growers on the label: Puymeras is produced by Laury and Plan de Dieu by Mathieu.

Puymeras village is at the foothills of the southern Alps. This named village wine is full of rich dark fruit, it's made from Grenache with great depth and body and a warming finish.

Plan de Dieu is a wine region on the flat plains and is made from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. Another deep wine of black fruit and high spice notes with a herby edge.

Puymeras and Plan de Dieu

Every bottle of the Cellier des Dauphins wines was superb, all slightly different but with a background similarity of Cotes du Rhone. As well as the wines mention above we also tasted Cairanne from their Cru des Cotes du Rhone, another superb wine.

Cellier des Dauphins Cru des Cotes du Rhone 

Thank you Jo for our Gifted bottles, my 2CV wine holder is now complete with its illuminated Les Dauphins bottle.

Cellier des Dauphins to us is far more than a wine; it's an old friend who brings fond memories and great enjoyment with every glass.

Hubby and I had a wonderful evening, thank you Jo, Laurent and Pauline.