iDealwine update: Hommage à Jacques Perrin

IN 1989, the rolling, galet-strewn hills of Courthézon in Châteauneuf-du-Pape enjoyed a beautiful growing season, with hot, sunny days and cool nights right until the end of the harvests. To mark the exceptional vintage, François and Jean-Pierre Perrin created a special cuvée to honour their father – Hommage à Jacques Perrin. A visionary winemaker, Jacques Perrin was instrumental in regenerating many of the area’s terroirs, and cementing the family domaine’s reputation as one of the finest in the appellation.

The first vintage of Hommage à Jacques Perrin was received with immediate critical acclaim; three decades later, the 1989 Hommage à Jacques Perrin is a big hitter in iDealwine auctions, frequently fetching over €1,000 (£886) per bottle. This rare bottling is all but impossible to find elsewhere than on the secondary market. More recent bottlings can be as tricky to acquire, except when finding one of the few merchants with direct allocations, like iDealwine.

Nowadays, the Perrin family is one of the Rhône Valley’s greatest vineyard owners, with more than 200 hectares of prime terroir at their fingertips. The estate’s origins date from 1549, when Pierre de Beaucastel bought a plot of Coudoulet vines. After several changes of hands in subsequent centuries, the Perrin family acquired the estate in 1909. To this day it remains under the careful stewardship of the same family, with the fifth generation currently at the helm. In the northeast corner of the appellation, just southeast of the city of Orange, the Château de Beaucastel vineyards span 100ha, planted with all of the appellation’s authorised grape varieties.

Despite Beaucastel’s status as one of the old guards of the region, Jacques Perrin’s pioneering work in the mid-20thcentury served to establish the domaine as one of Châteauneuf’s most progressive. Counter to the trend at the time, it was one of the first converts to organic and biodynamic farming in the region, which they adopted in 1950 and 1974 respectively. Perrin also instigated a return to authenticity by focusing on Mourvèdre, an old grape variety that had fallen out of favour in the Châteauneuf appellation because of the difficulties in cultivating it; Mourvèdre is the dominant grape in Hommage à Jacques Perrin and is its principal taste signature. HJP is super ripe, jammy and gamey, with a very complex aromatic of black fruits, spices and leather, elegant tannins and a surprisingly freshness for Châteauneufdu-Pape.

Since 1989, Hommage à Jacques Perrin has been produced only in the finest vintages, but the frequency is increasing, much to the delight of enophiles and collectors

This cuvée is, in theory, a selection of juices more than a specific terroir, but, in reality, those selected juices often come from the same parcels from one vintage to another. The vines are, on average, 50 years old, and yields are never higher than 30 hectolitres per hectare, often much lower. The traditional gobelet vines grow in a combination of sandstone, limestone, and the small, round galets for which the appellation is known. Chemical fertilisers are prohibited at the property; a ‘house’ compost is used instead, and treatments are kept to a minimum.

SEPARATE VINIFICATION

In the winery, the grapes are meticulously sorted, having been harvested by hand. Once the grapes have been de-stemmed, the reductive varieties, such as Mourvèdre and Syrah, are vinified in oak barrels, and the oxidative varieties in traditional concrete tanks. Each variety is vinified separately, then blended once malolactic fermentation is finished. After barrel-ageing, the wines rest in their bottles for another year at the property.

Since 1989, Hommage à Jacques Perrin has been produced only in the finest vintages, but the frequency is increasing, much to the delight of enophiles and collectors. The more mature the vintages are, the rarer they are, so the more sought out on the secondary market they become. The price curve is following the spectacular ageing potential of these bottlings, often reaching their peak after 20 years.

All vintages of the cuvée, young or old, sell at auction for over €300. The 1990, another historic vintage for the southern Rhône, reached €930 this summer. 1998 endured an exceptionally hot growing season, delivering a voluptuous, powerful wine with masses of ripe fruit and spice; bottles from this superlative vintage currently sell for over €500.

The 2010 and 2005 vintages are tentatively crossing the €350 threshold, while the 2008 Hommage à Jacques Perrin went for an impressive €675 last year. The 2010, a remarkably well-balanced wine with fine tannic structure, sold for €380 in 2020; the same vintage is currently estimated at €440.

In addition to the estate’s classic Châteauneuf bottlings, Beaucastel’s Vielles Vignes cuvée made from 100% Roussanne is also a firm favourite white with buyers, and fetches over €150 for all vintages. Jacques Perrin handed the mantle to his sons in 1978, but his legacy lives on. Today, Château de Beaucastel is producing some of the southern Rhône’s most renowned wines. The cuvée honouring Perrin’s work is a powerhouse of the region, a memorable tasting moment. Its ability to age for decades keeps the recent vintages prices affordable and make it an even more attractive investment; we expect this rise in prices to continue well into the future.