Notes from Jancis Robinson:

"Burgundy-trained Stéphane Ogier is a bit of a northern Rhône wunderkind. He joined his father Michel in 1997 to work the family vineyards and has built a glamorous new winery just south of Ampuis overlooked by the steep Côte Rôtie terraces. He has now built a second winery in the Southern Rhône to make wines like 'Le Temps est Venu' without having to ship the grapes too far. 

This rich-but-fresh southern Rhône red is blend is of about 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah from vines substantially grown in Violès on Le Plan de Dieu supplemented by some from Visan. Soils are a mixture of limestone and blue clay. Average vine density is 7,000 vines per hectare with the average age a very heartening 30 to 50 years. Vines are hand-harvested – yields averaging 40 hl/ha – before being sorted in both vineyard and cellar.

In the cellar the whole bunches are spontaneously fermented in concrete and aged for a further 10 months in concrete tanks. (Grenache is no friend of oak, especially not new oak.) Ogier suggests this wine can be aged for five to eight years – pretty impressive for a wine at this price. Of course it is easy to find red Côtes du Rhônes cheaper than Le Temps est Venu – but it’s also easy to find wines labelled Châteauneuf-du-Pape that are much more expensive and very much less satisfying."