Once again, one of the world’s great cheap whites doesn’t disappoint – no matter what others think
La Vieille Ferme Blanc 2022/$6-$12
The French La Vieille Ferme Blanc is annually one of the world’s great cheap white wines, and the 2022 version ($9, purchased, 13%) doesn’t disappoint – some lime, some stone fruit, and clean and fresh.
Nevertheless, someone gave it 69 points – which means it’s undrinkable — on CellarTracker, the blog’s unofficial wine inventory app.
Do I need to write any more? Or remind everyone why I’m so worried about the future of the wine business?
Once again, my mom’s rooster wine reminds us that great wine doesn’t require lots of money
Do a quick Google search, and there are lots of nasty things that show up about the La Vieille Ferme rose, including a demeaning score or two on Cellar Tracker, the blog’s unofficial wine inventory app.
Is it any wonder I worry about the future of the wine business?
When wine drinkers, wine critics, and wine geeks can’t see the value – let alone the joy – in a terrific $8 French rose, then we’ve lost one of the things that makes wine so much fun.
So nuts to them, and let the WC recount why this vintage of the La Vieille Ferme Rose ($8, purchased, 13%) is once again one of the great cheap bottles on the market today. The wine, a blend of cinsault, grenache, and syrah, is a touch fruitier this year (red berries) than last year, but there is also an almost orangish citrus note and even some garrigue (the French term for an herbal character some roses pick up). And I love this bit from the producer’s tasting notes: “Well balanced by a slight bitterness on the finish. …” Now that’s $8 winemaking.
Highly recommended, as always, as well as my mom’s favorite wine; it’s sure to take its place in the Hall of Fame next year. My only regret? That the no one in Dallas sells this in the 3-liter box, which would allow me to save even more money – as well as to sip and smile and feel just a little sorry for everyone who thinks the wine isn’t worth drinking.
Would that I could buy the 3-liter box of the La Vieille Ferme rose in Dallas
The experts tell us no one cares about cheap wine, but La Vieille just keeps growing
The blog’s 16th annual rose extravaganza — featuring lots and lots of pink wine that most of us can afford to buy – is just about a month away. So why not some good news featuring one of the blog’s favorite roses, which is especially welcome given the doom and gloom in the rest of the wine business?
The second-largest French table wine brand in the U.S. is not some premiumized plonk, a snooty wine snob brand, or a 94-point label that is only available in three stores (none of which are near where anyone lives).
It’s our old pal La Vieille Ferme, all $7 a bottle of it. Or, as my mom calls it, “the rooster wine.”
La Vieille sold almost 630,000 cases in the U.S. last year, which would rank it among the 30 or so biggest U.S. producers. Most importantly, its growth – up about one-third over the past five years – was led by its rose. And regular visitors here know just how much the WC appreciates the La Vieille rose – wine of the week more often than I can count, a long-time member of the Hall of Fame, and a finalist for the Turner award a couple of times.
And why not? It tastes like rose – dry, fruity, crisp, and refreshing, and neither sweet nor smoooth. It has maintained its quality over the past decade when so many others have not, giving in to cost cutting or marketing foolishness.
And, perhaps most importantly, La Vieille thrived during the Trump wine tariff. The man who runs its U.S. importer told me that he didn’t raise prices because he didn’t want to lose market share; which not only worked, but also got La Vieille new business from retailers who were impressed by the brand’s long-term determination to stay relevant. When’s the last time you heard that about a wine brand?
So drink a toast to the La Vieille – whether from the 750-ml bottle, the 1.5-liter bottle, or the 3-liter box. Because quality can win out, even when it doesn’t cost very much.
Once again, the La Vielle reminds us that wine doesn’t have to be expensive, snotty, or stupid
What better way to kick off the blog’s 15h annual rose extravaganza than with this French pink, which delivers stunning quality for oh so little money? And has done so for years and years and years.
So buy a case – or even the 3-liter box, if it’s available where you live – and thank the Perrin family that runs La Vieille for their skill and professionalism, as well as their decision not to dumb down or focus group the wine. Because it certainly must be tempting to do so in a rose world where very, very ordinary pink costs $18 (and you know who you are) and isn’t nearly as well made as this.
First and foremost, know that the La Vieille ($8, sample, 13%) is dry, and not the faux dry that shows up in too many California roses when the wise guys leave in a touch of residual sugar because they’re smarter than we are. In addition, it’s clean, crispy, and stony, with barely ripe strawberry fruit. In other words, rose the way French rose should be.
One sign that the Perrin family knows what it’s doing: This vintage isn’t labeled Ventoux, the appellation that the wine has carried for years. Instead, it’s merely labeled France, which I assume was done to keep prices down but to keep up the quality.
Highly recommended, and should return to the Hall of Fame next January. And why not, when something this well made costs this little?
The 2019 version of the red version of France’s La Vieille Ferme is about more than nostalgia
Long before I started writing about wine, I bought wine. And Rich Liebman sold me a lot of that, at the old Greenville Avenue Goody Goody in Dallas. There was South Africa’s KWV (which, if nothing else, was cheap). There were the 1.5-liter bottles of Fetzer chardonnay and merlot, which passed for high-end drinking at my house.
And there was La Vieille Ferme.
In those days, La Vieille was rough, tart, and often unripe – in other words, what most of us thought French wine should taste like. Rich loved the red, which never did much for me, though I sometimes bought the white (and I don’t remember his store carrying the rose).
So this Birthday Week wine of the week is for Rich, a long-time supporter of the blog. That’s because the La Vieille Ferme Rouge 2019 ($10, purchased, 13%) is nothing like what it was in the old days. This vintage of the red blend is the best I’ve tasted in years. It’s still a little rough and tannic, but in a good way, so that you’ll know the minute you taste it that no one at the winery intended for it to be smoooth. Look for black fruit that is not especially tart or green, and a more than decent “this doesn’t taste like cheap wine” finish.
Will it end up in the Hall of Fame in January? Maybe. It’s that much improved. Regardless, though, I’ll always think of buying wine from Rich when I drink it. Which isn’t a bad legacy for a wine, either.
First the rose, and then the La Vieille Ferme white – how much luckier can we be?
Two decades ago, the various French La Vieille Ferme wines were of uneven quality – sometimes drinkable, sometimes rough and uneven and even less drinkable. These days, they leave me speechless.
The rose, of course, has established its place as one of the great cheap wines of all time. The red, though still a bit old-fashioned, is usually a more than acceptable $8 wine.
And the white? It’s improved so much that I’m almost at a loss for words.
The La Vieille Ferme Blanc 2020 ($9, purchased, 13%) is a white blend made with grapes most of us haven’t heard of – bourboulenc, anyone? This, of course, keeps the cost down. It also allows production of a simple, but not stupid, wine that is clean and fresh and absent any off flavors or aromas. Trust me – this was not always the case.
This vintage isn’t too fruity (it is a French wine, after all), with some sort of lime and maybe some stone fruits. But it’s not especially tart, which happens all too often with this style of wine at this price.
Highly recommended, and almost certain to enter the Hall of Fame in January. Drink this chilled on its own or with grilled chicken and summer salads.
This vintage of the La Vieille Ferme Rose is another truly professional effort that’s well worth drinking
Once more, the Wine Curmudgeon’s thanks to whoever and whatever has given us La Vieille Ferme’s commitment to cheap, quality, and readily available rose. The 2020 is yet again top-notch and enjoyable, a French pink that is dry, rose-like, and a value – a fitting wine of the week for the blog’s 14th annual rose extravaganza.
It’s a Rhone-style blend of three red grapes – cinsault, grenache, and syrah. Look for cherry and berry fruit, and something the wine’s tasting notes call peach but isn’t quite that defined. Equally as important, it’s bone dry, with a bit of stoniness and clean as it can be.
I brought this wine to a May cookout, and the host didn’t have any wine glasses. So we drank it in plastic cups, a la Marseillais, and it was still terrific – another truly professional effort..
