WTN: 2000 CORNAS TARDIEU-LAURENT

Every once in a while you have the perfect match of food and wine. With Coq Au Vin this weekend we opened the Cornas. It was pure dark fruit, nice pepper and bacon fat, and even though decanted for 1 hour it is just beginning the drinking window. There were no tricks with this wine, just a fantastic drink. Use Yellow Tail Shiraz as the wine in the Coq Au Vin, as well as all of our stew type dishes requiring red wine. Great use for this wine and think it actually enhanced the match of food and wine.
Walt

[Jenise]

Sounds great, Walt. I've got the 01 of that and look forward to being able to crack our first bottle in a year or two.

Sounds great, Walt. I've got the 01 of that and look forward to being able to crack our first bottle in a year or two.

Iam not an expert on this wine but if I had the '01 I would be in no hurry to open it. It should be very good.
Walt

Surprised you like a TL, as I thought you described yourself as an oakaphobe. Pretty much every TL I've had is heavily into the super-extraction/oak mode. Thanks for notes

Surprised you like a TL, as I thought you described yourself as an oakaphobe. Pretty much every TL I've had is heavily into the super-extraction/oak mode. Thanks for notes

Dale,
You are right, I am not a fan of oak, or put a better way, out-of-balance oak. The major part of my cellar is Bordeaux and it would be hard to imagine a good Bordeaux being made without oak. Regardless, as I said I am not an expert on TL but did not detect anything that was out of balance. It may have been such a ripe year for N Rhone that the oak was surpressed by the fruit. It was a delightful bottle of wine but now you have me a little concerned about buying other TL wines without first trying them.
Walt

Pretty sure Tardieu's practice (I think Dominique Laurent is no longer part of the operation) is to put everything (at least Syrahs) into brand new oak

Pretty sure Tardieu's practice (I think Dominique Laurent is no longer part of the operation) is to put everything (at least Syrahs) into brand new oak

You are not mistaken, Dale. T-L's modus operandi is a high (100?) percentage of new barriques for their Syrahs. I too was surprised by Walt's love of the '00 Cornas, but since I haven't had it myself, I'll reserve further comment. Having had a few older La Las, I can say that the oak wasn't prominent, but was nonetheless evident as mouthfeel and the telltale butterscotch notes.

Mark Lipton

Pretty sure Tardieu's practice (I think Dominique Laurent is no longer part of the operation) is to put everything (at least Syrahs) into brand new oak

You are not mistaken, Dale. T-L's modus operandi is a high (100?) percentage of new barriques for their Syrahs. I too was surprised by Walt's love of the '00 Cornas, but since I haven't had it myself, I'll reserve further comment. Having had a few older La Las, I can say that the oak wasn't prominent, but was nonetheless evident as mouthfeel and the telltale butterscotch notes.

Mark Lipton

You guys are going to make me go and open another bottle to calibrate my oakaphobia.
Walt

Pretty much every TL I've had is heavily into the super-extraction/oak mode. Thanks for notes

That is generally my view as well, but I have had a number of exceptions that prove the rule. Every now and then TL makes a wine with a rather classic Rhône profile. I remember fondly some '02s and even IIRC the '03 Côte-Rôtie (or some other N. Rhône syrah from the dreaded '03 vintage) wasn't overly woody. The '95 CR had become quite nice recently also.

-O

Pretty sure Tardieu's practice (I think Dominique Laurent is no longer part of the operation) is to put everything (at least Syrahs) into brand new oak

I haven't tasted all the T-Ls but of the six or eight different ones that I have, they were oaky. Maybe I've just been unlucky. PS over the top also.