Truffle and violet-soaked Syrah from 75 year-old Louis Sozet. We were his first visitors from England and his first export. No wife, no kids and living in his Grandfather’s house, untouched for decades. A throwback to another age.
What brought us to his door? The adventure began a year earlier when we had a couple of hours to kill and decided to visit Cornas, poke around and look for lunch. Luckily the only place open in Cornas one cold December lunchtime was Villa Rouge. The French are masters of salad – served with lardons, poached egg and melted chevre. One wall has a good selection of wines from Cornas. A good place to do some research. Among the well-known names nestled bottles from growers we had never heard of including Louis Sozet. The lady at the restaurant told us, “he’s a sweet old boy, no wife, no kids. Still makes his wine.”
Cornas, from the southern end of the northern Rhone – opposite bank and down a bit from Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage can be hard as nails young. Not so here. We brought a bottle of 2006 back to The Winery, loved it and started the courtship a few weeks before our next trip. Our French colleague Ben said, when he finally got through on the phone, “I can barely understand him, his accent is super-thick Ardechois”. What chance did we have? We thought that an order and a date was made but couldn’t be sure.
We arrived at the appointed time, wandered into the yard, small van, tractor, washing hanging up high. Flat-capped and bent double, Monsieur Sozet emerged from a doorway, and invited us in. One table, three chairs, one TV, a cooker with two pots, one light bulb, a kitchen sink from the 1800s. We felt like time travellers.
Right, he said, I’ve spoken to the Customs. (Oh dear, we thought, this may get complicated). He had never exported before. “I need these Excise numbers”. No problem. He wrote them down. We tasted the 2006 (mmmm, truffley) and the 2008 (mmmm violetty). Did we hear old vines? Yes, some of them are over 100 years old.
Right, I’m just going to phone the Customs. His phone, hardly surprisingly, was rotary dial. Right, we just need to go up there and then you can take the wine. We’ll go in my van, it’s only 5 minutes up the road in Tain (which he pronounces “Tayng”). For the next 30 minutes he drove in 2nd gear at 20kms per hour on the Route Nationale, lorries honking and overtaking. “I drive slow but I always get there”, he said – more than once.
The lady at Customs was charming and helpful. Long story short, same in reverse and two and a half hours later we were on our way.
Oh, and the tractor? Yes, I still use it – just on the slightly flatter bits.
