Since 1970, La Vieille Ferme has been producing authentic, honest and tasty wines vintage after vintage. In some of the world’s best restaurants and bars, La Vieille Ferme has been acknowledged as one of the best value for money wines in the world.
Presentation
Presentation
The Perrin family, also owners of the famous Château de Beaucastel, search for the most suitable terroirs to produce a fresh and fruity wine. Unpretentious, this is the archetypal pleasure wine; authentic, genuine and tasty.
The vintage
2009 is a great vintage of the Southern Rhône Valley. It’s a combination of ripe fruit, a rich and harmonious mouth and a fleshy finale with elegant tannins.
Location
The vineyards are located on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. The altitude offers freshness, which provides a good acidity level to the grapes. The wine is therefore fresh, fruity and well balanced.
Terroir
This varies according to altitude but consists for the most part of deposits left around the base of the chalky Mont Ventoux by the seas of the Tertiary period. Red Mediterranean soils blend with chalk debris and round stones.
Ageing
This is adapted to suit each wine, grape variety and producer. Nearly all the grapes are lightly crushed and fermented in cement vats of 150 and 300 hectolitres. The fermentation is classic and extended. The wine is kept in both vats and large oak barrelsfor ten months, then bottled in July.
Varietals
Grenache
Syrah
Carignan
Cinsault
Syrah
Carignan
Cinsault
Advice
Serving
17°C with a spontaneous meal and for enjoyment.
Tasting
Colour: deep cherry red.
Nose: ripe fruit, rich and spicy.
Palate: red fruit (blackcurrant and blackberry), spice with a fresh finish.
Nose: ripe fruit, rich and spicy.
Palate: red fruit (blackcurrant and blackberry), spice with a fresh finish.
Wine Tasting Video
Recipes
Grilled Chicken, Honey and Soya Sauce
Reviews
"'This is a wine for those who want great quality and delicious drinking...'
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"One of the 200 great values from around the world."
"Back in the 1970s, when I was a young fella who hadn't started writing about wine and really didn't even know all that much about it except that it was good, the New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne belted out a hymn of praise to a "little" French wine called La Vieille Ferme, "the Old Farm."
Pay no attention to the fact that this wine came from the Côtes-du-Rhône, Claiborne advised, even though in that day if French wine didn't come from Bordeaux or Burgundy it didn't win much respect. It must have sold for around $2.50, a pretty good price in the day when $5 bought very good wine and the $6 point was for celebrations and holidays.
Then as now, La Vieille Ferme was made from Southern Rhône grapes selected and bottled by the Perrin family, owners of noteworthy Rhône properties including the iconic Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
And over the years it hasn't changed much. When Côtes-du-Rhône finally started to earn the respect it deserved and prices went up, the Perrins moved around the corner and down the road to the Côtes du Ventoux in Provence. In recent years they've also changed the label from a drawing of, well, an old farm, to one of poultry on the hoof, so to speak, in the barnyard. Neither of these changes much altered what's in the bottle; and a recent shift from natural cork to sturdy metal screwcap is a clear positive in a wine at this price.
I liked it then. I like it now. The 2008 is drinking nicely, and the 2009 should start turning up in your local wine shop soon. "
Pay no attention to the fact that this wine came from the Côtes-du-Rhône, Claiborne advised, even though in that day if French wine didn't come from Bordeaux or Burgundy it didn't win much respect. It must have sold for around $2.50, a pretty good price in the day when $5 bought very good wine and the $6 point was for celebrations and holidays.
Then as now, La Vieille Ferme was made from Southern Rhône grapes selected and bottled by the Perrin family, owners of noteworthy Rhône properties including the iconic Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
And over the years it hasn't changed much. When Côtes-du-Rhône finally started to earn the respect it deserved and prices went up, the Perrins moved around the corner and down the road to the Côtes du Ventoux in Provence. In recent years they've also changed the label from a drawing of, well, an old farm, to one of poultry on the hoof, so to speak, in the barnyard. Neither of these changes much altered what's in the bottle; and a recent shift from natural cork to sturdy metal screwcap is a clear positive in a wine at this price.
I liked it then. I like it now. The 2008 is drinking nicely, and the 2009 should start turning up in your local wine shop soon. "
"As it was in the '70s, so it is now: La Vieille Ferme is hard to beat for value in a traditional Rhône red. U.S. prices, per Wine-Searcher.com, range from $6.50 to $9.99. It's a buy even at my high-end local price; if you can find it for $7 or less it's an insane bargain."
"Okay, this choice is hardly original, but the 2009 is particularly worthy of your attention.
Here is a bargain way to enjoy the ripeness in the southern Rhône that resulted from the exceptionally warm, dry summer of 2009. La Vieille Ferme 2009 Ventoux (as the appellation known until 2008 as Côtes du Ventoux is now known) is made from grapes grown at cooler, higher altitudes than the Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyards about which I have been writing in such detail this week (see Rhône 2009 - a guide) and at rather higher yields, so the grapes were juicier and the wine is much simpler, fruitier and designed for much earlier drinking - now in fact.
Mont Ventoux is the cone-shaped mountain you can see in the distance from so many southern Rhône vineyards and is cool enough to be snow covered for much of the winter. The grapes for this wine - typically 50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 15% Cinsault and 15% Carignan - were grown on its flanks at up to 300 m above sea level. The wine is fermented in cement and aged in large old oak barrels until bottling in July.
La Vieille Ferme is the creation of the talented Perrin family, whose family estate, Château de Beaucastel, is the source of some of the finest red and white Châteauneuf-du-Pape (see my enthusiastic review of their latest restaurant venture in Gigondas). But La Vieille Ferme is their well-established négociant label, meaning that they buy in the ingredients and make and market the wine in considerable quantity. When the vintage is right, these Vieille Ferme wines can represent exceptional value.
It must be made in considerable quantity because, according to Wine-searcher.com, it seems to be available in literally hundreds of American wine stores and is also available throughout Europe and in Australia.
In the UK at the time of writing, it is available at Cambridge Wine Merchants for £6.99 (or the equivalent of £6.57 if bought by the dozen), at Majestic for £7.49 or £11.98 for two, and it will be back in stock at Waitrose Wine Direct (after their 25% off special offer which seems to have cleared it out) at £6.37 just as soon as stocks have been replenished - expected to be towards the end of next week. I just hope that this latest shipment is as chock full of spice and sunshine as the one I tried.
This is a friendly, exuberant, fruity wine made to be enjoyed over the next 12 months, with casual meals. I could very easily imagine it with sausages and mash. Screwcapped for ease of use and maximum freshness."
Here is a bargain way to enjoy the ripeness in the southern Rhône that resulted from the exceptionally warm, dry summer of 2009. La Vieille Ferme 2009 Ventoux (as the appellation known until 2008 as Côtes du Ventoux is now known) is made from grapes grown at cooler, higher altitudes than the Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyards about which I have been writing in such detail this week (see Rhône 2009 - a guide) and at rather higher yields, so the grapes were juicier and the wine is much simpler, fruitier and designed for much earlier drinking - now in fact.
Mont Ventoux is the cone-shaped mountain you can see in the distance from so many southern Rhône vineyards and is cool enough to be snow covered for much of the winter. The grapes for this wine - typically 50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 15% Cinsault and 15% Carignan - were grown on its flanks at up to 300 m above sea level. The wine is fermented in cement and aged in large old oak barrels until bottling in July.
La Vieille Ferme is the creation of the talented Perrin family, whose family estate, Château de Beaucastel, is the source of some of the finest red and white Châteauneuf-du-Pape (see my enthusiastic review of their latest restaurant venture in Gigondas). But La Vieille Ferme is their well-established négociant label, meaning that they buy in the ingredients and make and market the wine in considerable quantity. When the vintage is right, these Vieille Ferme wines can represent exceptional value.
It must be made in considerable quantity because, according to Wine-searcher.com, it seems to be available in literally hundreds of American wine stores and is also available throughout Europe and in Australia.
In the UK at the time of writing, it is available at Cambridge Wine Merchants for £6.99 (or the equivalent of £6.57 if bought by the dozen), at Majestic for £7.49 or £11.98 for two, and it will be back in stock at Waitrose Wine Direct (after their 25% off special offer which seems to have cleared it out) at £6.37 just as soon as stocks have been replenished - expected to be towards the end of next week. I just hope that this latest shipment is as chock full of spice and sunshine as the one I tried.
This is a friendly, exuberant, fruity wine made to be enjoyed over the next 12 months, with casual meals. I could very easily imagine it with sausages and mash. Screwcapped for ease of use and maximum freshness."
"The Perrin family, owners of the renowned Chateau Beaucastel in Châteauneuf du Pape, have consistently made solid “everyday” wines under their Vieille Ferme label from grapes and wine they purchase. A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, it delivers a mid-weight combination of fresh cherry-like fruit flavors and zesty spice notes. A good choice for anything from pizza to burgers."
"The Perrin brothers produce one of the great-name Rhône wines in the (very expensive) Château de Beaucastel and apply the same quality control to this label, which delivers exceptional value for the price. Medium-bodied, but richly spicy and earthy, it is cheap enough to accompany one of my favourite supper dishes for this time of year – a warming stew of mussels or clams with chorizo and potatoes – but would not disgrace a dinner party."
"Bright ruby. Lively red fruits and spices on the nose and in the mouth. Light-bodied and a bit jammy but shows good energy and clarity. Finishes clean and brisk, with lingering bitterness and a touch of cracked pepper. Given its production level and price, this wine's quality is most impressive. It's also available pretty much everywhere."
