The Wines of Jean-Luc Colombo

The International Wine Review has long had a special interest in Jean-Luc Colombo and his wines. A few years ago we traveled to the Rhone with our i-WineReview Tasting Panel colleague Michael Flynn, now beverage director at Dallas’ upscale Mansion at Turtle Creek. During that trip we met with several of the important winemakers of the Rhone, including, of course, Jean-Luc Colombo. We met at the elegant Hotel d’Europe restaurant in Avignon, and Jean-Luc brought along some of his innovative and beautifully crafted wines to accompany a delicious lunch. We sensed his passion for winemaking and a love of food and wine that we enthusiastically share. So when his importer, Palm Bay International, generously offered us the opportunity to taste through a portfolio of Jean-Luc’s best wines, we of course responded with a loud affirmative.

Jean-Luc Colombo is one of France’s most talented and creative winemakers. Since the early 1980s he has been crafting first-class wines from the Northern Rhone Valley and Southern France. Jean-Luc’s wines are very different from those of the old-school vignerons. His philosophy has been to produce fruit forward and elegant wines, pure in flavor and expressive of their terroir. This approach has ruffled some feathers, but the results speak for themselves. Jean-Luc is highly successful, not just as a winemaker, but as a negociant (Vins Jean-Luc Colombo) and as a consultant winemaker to some of the most respected wineries in the Northern Rhone Valley and elsewhere. Like his friend, the famed wine consultant, Michel Rolland, Jean-Luc is a man on the move, both passionate and revolutionary. His wines, several of which are reviewed here, are of a very high quality and deserving of attention by the trade and the serious wine enthusiast.

A native of Marseille, now in his 50s, Jean-Luc grew up in a kitchen environment (both his mother and grandmother were chefs) where he developed his considerable passion for food and wine. In the mid-1970s while studying to become a pharmacist, he discovered enology and soon turned his interests and energy to winemaking. He read Le Gout du Vin, by the great Bordeaux enologist Emile Peynaud and later met Michel Rolland, who influenced his thinking about wine-making. Jean-Luc was soon attracted to Syrah and to Cornas- a tiny neglected appellation in the Northern Rhone Valley- which he felt had great potential as a winemaking region. He later opened his own wine laboratory in Cornas and developed a reputation as a wine consultant, giving new life into the relatively unknown wines of Cornas. He purchased his own vineyards first in Cornas then throughout the Rhone Valley. He also contracted carefully selected vineyards for his growing portfolio of wines. In 1994, he established Vins Jean-Luc Colombo (http://vinsjlcolombo.3it.com/).

Jean Luc gives top priority to the vineyard. He employs modern vineyard management practices and organic viticulture. He destems, green harvests, and keeps yields per vine to 2 kilos or less. He harvests fruit when it is phenolically ripe, ferments in stainless steel and ages his higher end wines in new French barriques. His wines are beautifully crafted, exhibiting purity of fruit with admirable concentration and finesse. His top cuvées from Cornas, C?te R?tie, and Chateauneuf du Pape need time in bottle to soften and integrate tannins, but also have great aging potential. His everyday wines from the Cotes du Rhone are pleasant and easy-drinking; his white wines from Condrieu and Saint Peray are rich in fruit, flavorful and show good acidity. Generally speaking, his wines are modern and international in style, yet his top cuveés exhibit the nuances of terroir.