It was pleasant to have a look at some of Yapp's current offerings at the Scottish Wine Society recently. Robin Yapp did a lot of good work popularising the Rhone in this country and they now cover most of France apart from the big two of Burgundy and Bordeaux. They still have wines from some of the top growers, like Chave for instance, who they supported before they were so well-known. Everything  we tasted was at least interesting. Two things that I rather liked were a good-value white Sablet from Meffre (around 8 pounds) and the VdP Collines from Vernay, the master of Condrieu, who makes this from Viognier grown just outside of that prestigious appellation. It was interesting too to have a look at Jasmin's 1997 Cote-Rotie: very fine and elegant - good stuff, but I am not convinced this estate is making wines the way it did twenty years ago.

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