WTN: The Grand Crew sinks boatloads of No Rhones

[Jenise]

The Grand Crew met in downtown Bellingham last night, joined by Brad Liljequist and longtime WLDGer, Lee Short, who came up from Seattle with their wives Lesli and Melissa to join us. The bounty was nothing less than short of amazing. The wines were not served blind, but divided into groups by district and served in order of age. Kind of.

2003 Guigal St. Joseph blanc: big up-front fruit of ripe apples and mixed stone fruit. Good minerality but very little acid, which is so often an issue with me and Rhone whites. The wines just seem to fall away into nothing.

1994 Chave Hermitage blanc: rich amber-golden color with exciting nectarine and apple cider nose. Takes on honey tones with air and develops some suave petrol notes, and during the first hour I wrote "immortal" because that's really how it seemed. Then sometime during the second hour, the acid died and the flavors faded. Obviously, not immortal, but wow that first hour it was one of the headier white wines I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

1998 Chave St. Joseph Estate: Restrained plummy fruit with green olives, roasted meat, a bit of that Chave burnt rubber, and pepper. A very good showing, and an interesting contrast to:

1997 Grippat St. Joseph: ripe, giving and open with sweet black cherry fruit and an interesting streak of eucalyptus. Someone aptly called it 'Californian'. The Chave is the savoury style I prefer, but this was also very good.

1997 Ogier Belle Helene Cote-Rotie: Big, voluptuous nose, big attack, plummy and smokey with bay leaf and loads of pepper. One of my favorites.

1998 Burgaud Cote-Rotie: Spicey nose with a brandy-like element to it, mild fruit and a bit of green grass. Got spicier and more interesting with more time in the glass. I liked it quite a bit. Should reward further cellaring.

1995 Vernay Cote-Rotie: At first, jammy fruit with a mild pruniness that integrated when the wine opened up in the glass. Enjoyable, but I'm not sure where this one's going--that prune tone worries me.

1996 Jaboulet La Chapelle, Hermitage: a nicely balanced, medium-bodied Rhone syrah that was very pleasing to drink, but looking back on other vintages I've had like 83, 86 and 89, this wine underperformed what I would expect from a Chapelle.

1998 Clape Cornas: Definitely a bit tight and needing more time, but there's a lot of solid black fruit here and this classy wine should become quite a looker.

1998 Verset Cornas: WOW. What a nose! Huge perfumed nose with magnificent fruit of black cherry and boysenberry, and violets, lavendar, and bacon. Drinking at it's best possible right now, I'd think. Absolutely mesmerizing. Outstanding, and my WOTN.

1998 Allemand Cornas 'Chaillot': Big sulfur nose that reduces but doesn't completely disappear with time in the glass; also quite floral with black cherry, violets and sagey underbrush. Very youthful, and the structure and acid give it a very 'cut' presence. Outstanding, and probably my second favorite.

1996 Verset Cornas: Big big sulfur, too much to drink, with considerable acid and oddly strong celery finish. It needed more time than we had last night to blow the sulfur if it ever would/could, so we didn't retaste.

1992 Belle Pere et Fils Crozes-Hermitage "Louis Belle" : Classic C-H fruit that's quite youthful for it's age with scads of green olives and herbs. A remarkable wine in that the sweet fruit still showed primary elements and yet the tannins were basically gone. Very, very impressive.

Then Eric opened his bag of tricks (he always does this):

2004 Dehlinger Syrah, California: Among California syrahs this may seem Rhonish, but among Rhones it seems very Californian. Very primary black fruit with that powdered sugar donut thing that seems so typical of many California syrahs, tar and just a bit of raw bacon. Will be a very good wine some day, but it's quite backward now.

And then the restaurant brought out this bottle to serve with chocolate truffles:

2004 Domaine Mas Blanc Banyuls: Generally not a fan of Banyuls myself, but I liked this for it's lighter carriage and brightness. Quite good, actually, and refreshing.

1998 Burgaud Cotes-Rotie: Spicey nose with a brandied element to it, mild fruit and a bit of green grass. Got spicier and more interesting with more time in the glass. I liked it quite a bit. Should reward further cellaring.

I would usually think of brandy as a problematic element in red wine, but I guess it was balanced by other things. Doesn't sound like this had a ton of 'fruit' though.. But interesting.

Regardless, great lineup.

Huh. I thought the Ogier wasn't showing a whole lot, and really needed another 5 to 10.

The Chaves indeed showed quite well, though I had the feeling that the St Jo would really turn the corner in another 3 years or so.

The La Chappelle was indeed underwhelming for what it was.

The Verset and Allemand were both great wines, and tied for my WOTN. Again, both will be better with some more age.

A fun tasting.

Thanks for the notes, Jenise.

Brad L would want me to point out that the Belle Crozes Hermitage was their special bottling called cuvee Louis Belle.
It comes from older vines where the soil has some granite mixed with clay and limestone. Also the vinification for the Louis Belle is a little different than their regular red CH. Whole bunches are used in the fermentation, with native yeasts. The Louis Belle gets 30% new oak barrels where the basic red is 15% new barrels. I think the LB is more tannic to start with and can age longer because of its structure.


I really enjoyed the wines, especially the Chave Hermitage blanc and two of the '98 Cornas.
The Allemand Cornas seemed much too young and wasn't showing much, while the Verset and Clape were singing. I do think the 1998 Allemand will turn out well, but I wouldn't open this for several years if I owned any more of it. When Verset Cornas are good, they are among my favorites, and this was a really good bottle, very floral, with olive and some smoke and ash, but also some dark fruit there. I had a good 2000 Verset recently that was very mineral, but also didn't have much fruit left. This 1998 was better.

As good as the '98 Verset was, the '96 was really terrible. I think the wine could be considered flawed because of all the sulfur. It was close to a DNPIM wine.

The Jaboulet La Chapelle finished with pretty hard, drying tannins which made me think of oak tannin.

The two St Joseph reds were an interesting comparison. The '98 JL Chave was for me classic N Rhone flavors, and it seemed tight and a little closed for an 11 yr old St Joseph.
The '97 Grippat was lush and ripe, and I thought drinking perfectly right now.

The Chave Hermitage blanc was outstanding and I think the wine of the night for me, with the 98 Verset a close second.

Best,
Marc

[Jenise]

I would usually think of brandy as a problematic element in red wine, but I guess it was balanced by other things. Doesn't sound like this had a ton of 'fruit' though.. But interesting.

Understood. And it's a little hard to defend my notes two days later, but I do clearly recall scrambling to find a descriptor to capture something both sharp and sweet and perhaps cask-y in a way that excluded problems like oxidation and stewed fruit.

[Jenise]

Huh. I thought the Ogier wasn't showing a whole lot, and really needed another 5 to 10.

I would bow to your expertise on this. It was my first Belle Helene, and I have nothing to compare it to except the other wines on the table.

The La Chappelle was indeed underwhelming for what it was.

I see Marc agrees as well. Warren felt quite differently about it, but it was his wine and I don't know if he's had great Chapelles.

The Verset and Allemand were both great wines, and tied for my WOTN. Again, both will be better with some more age.

Really, the Verset too? It's hard for me to imagine the Verset getting better simply because I thought it was so incredible just as it was.

Good to meet you at last, Lee, thanks for coming up.

[Jenise]

Brad L would want me to point out that the Belle Crozes Hermitage was their special bottling called cuvee Louis Belle.
It comes from older vines where the soil has some granite mixed with clay and limestone. Also the vinification for the Louis Belle is a little different than their regular red CH. Whole bunches are used in the fermentation, with native yeasts. The Louis Belle gets 30% new oak barrels where the basic red is 15% new barrels. I think the LB is more tannic to start with and can age longer because of its structure.

Thanks for the correction, Marc. I admit to hearing the words "Louis Belle" but I couldn't quite turn that into English nor, unfortunately, read the bottle label in that dim light.

a descriptor to capture something both sharp and sweet and perhaps cask-y in a way that excluded problems like oxidation and stewed fruit.

Ok. I was thinking out-of-whack alcohol.

But I can see that.

Great line up of wines and thanks for the great notes. Did the restaurant serve food geared towards N. Rhones?

1998 Verset Cornas: WOW. What a nose! Huge perfumed nose with magnificent fruit of black cherry and boysenberry, and violets, lavendar, and bacon. Drinking at it's best possible right now, I'd think. Absolutely mesmerizing. Outstanding, and my WOTN. .

Very nice notes, and a nice lineup. We had the '98 Verset in Dec in a good lineup of N & S Rhones, easily my WOTN. Thanks

As good as the '98 Verset was, the '96 was really terrible. I think the wine could be considered flawed because of all the sulfur. It was close to a DNPIM wine.

CLOSE TO?

This was clearly a full-blown DNPIM. Or were you braver than the rest of us?

The Verset and Allemand were both great wines, and tied for my WOTN. Again, both will be better with some more age.

Really, the Verset too? It's hard for me to imagine the Verset getting better simply because I thought it was so incredible just as it was.

Good to meet you at last, Lee, thanks for coming up.

Absolutely the Verset too. I agree it was good, but will likely be much better, imo. But I definitely prefer my syrah toward the old and crotchety side.

Melissa's opinion was that the tasting was much more educational than enjoyable because almost all the good wines were too young (she's quite tannin averse). I see her point, but the Belle, Grippat, and Chave blanc were the exceptions that proved the rule.

As good as the '98 Verset was, the '96 was really terrible. I think the wine could be considered flawed because of all the sulfur. It was close to a DNPIM wine.

CLOSE TO?

This was clearly a full-blown DNPIM. Or were you braver than the rest of us?

You are right, but I did taste it it to see if the mouth was as vile as the nose.