Raymond Blake on the romance and reality of Les Deux Cols, a collaboration that began in Dublin and is now producing increasingly refined wines in the Rhône Valley.
Much has been written about the strong Irish wine connections to Bordeaux, made manifest in château names such as Léoville Barton and Lynch-Bages, and négociants such as Lawton. Valid Hibernian claims can also be made for far-distant regions—Clare Valley in Australia springs to mind—and, though some of the links have been eroded over time, Irish wine lovers are never slow to engage in some genealogical wizardry to fan the embers of a connection that may be more historical than contemporary. No such sleight of hand is needed in the case of Les Deux Cols, in the Rhône Valley, whose genesis barely extends back to the end of the past century.
Charles Derain from Toulouse—the “half” of the triumvirate—arrived in Ireland to work as a sommelier in 1999, having qualified from the Lycée Hotelier de Tain l’Hermitage, with some winemaking experience at Domaine Alain Graillot in Crozes-Hermitage to boost his credentials. He quickly established a reputation as Ireland’s finest sommelier, and members of the wine trade keen to sell him wine could be assured that they were dealing with someone who “knew his onions.” One of these was Simon Tyrrell, who had his own distribution business specializing in wines from the Rhône Valley. The two quickly established a rapport that developed into a firm friendship, leading eventually to talk of making
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
