Guide Hachette des Vins 2012

The new edition of Hachette has arrived, always a good moment.  It has been a standby in our search for new, interesting and delicious wines since the mid-1990s, and lately we have been pleased to find, quite often, that makers whom we have got to know and like by other routes have ended up listed in Hachette.  Among our favourites in the 2012 edition are:

• in Champagne, Guy Larmandier at Vertus in the Côte des Blancs - his children are now running the business and have a coup de coeur for their Cramant
• in Bourgogne, Dom. Lucien Jacob (one of our first discoveries, originally through 3D Wines) in Echevronne, Dom. Henri Naudin Ferrand (2 sisters have long succeeded their father in nearby Magny-les-Villers in the Haut Côtes de Nuits, Raymong Dupont-Fahn near Meursault and the Mercurey producer Domaine Pillot at Mellecy in the Côte Chalonnaise.
• Our favourite among the Beaujolais crûs, Domaine les Roches Bleues for their Brouilly and Côtes de Brouilly
• Lingot-Martin at Poncin (Ain) for their Cerdon pink sparkler, our most recent discovery last month
• Didier Cornillon in the Diois for his Gamay d'Antan
• in the southern Rhône, Durban in Beaumes de Venise (for their red Gigondas as well as the Muscat), Amouriers at Vacqueyras which was another of our very early discoveries, the conic Oratoire de St Martin at Cairanne, Jean-Marc Espinasse's Domaine Rouge Bleu near St Cécile les Vignes for his Mistral red, Trapadis at Rasteau not only for the unusual red vin doux naturel of that village but for Côtes du Rhône red too, and Pesqué near Mont Ventoux
• near to our home in the east of the Languedoc, Grès Saint Paul here in Lunel, Guitard just east of us in the Gard, La Coste Moynier in Saint Christol (this village is now the main centre of wine production in the Pays de Lunel)
• two family connections of our friends the Llinares, Tavernel (south of Nîmes), and Bergerie du Capucin who have shone as very new arrivals in the crowded but excellent Pic Saint Loup appellation.
• Further afield across the Hérault and the Aude 2 coastal domaines: Nouveau Monde south of Béziers (to which we were introduced by our friend Régine) and Mire l'Etang in the La Clape area near Narbonne, Félines Jourdan (who makes excellent Picpoul de Pinet) and Fadèze for their delicious Roussanne, both near the Etang de Thau between Marseillan and Mèze, Benoit Viot's outstanding Chemin des Rêves at St Gély du Fesc south of the Pic St Loup, and at the western extremities, Isabel Coustal's Château Sainte Eulalie at La Livinière in the Minervois and the Le Mariés Château Aiguilloux in the Corbières

That's just a snapshot - doubtless there are more we already know and many, many more that we look forward to discovering among the 10,000 wines listed.