Open Mike: 99 Gigondas

[Jenise]

Plan to open a St. Cosme this weekend to pair with the Mario Batali recipe for fettucine with pancetta and parsnips. Haven't had a 99 Gigondas in a long while, should be showing well. Anyone care to join me?

Plan to open this wine this weekend to pair with the Mario Batali recipe for fettucine with pancetta and parsnips. Anyone care to join me?

Sure, Jenise. What time's dinner?

Mark Lipton

Plan to open a St. Cosme this weekend to pair with the Mario Batali recipe for fettucine with pancetta and parsnips. Haven't had a 99 Gigondas in a long while, should be showing well. Anyone care to join me?

Yup, no problem..Vacqueyras coming up on Sunday!!

[David M. Bueker]

Ok, so Jenise beat me to it. I will be opening up the '99 St. Cosme as well on Sunday (if I can find the bottle that is...).

The '99s are doing very well right now, so hopefully this will be a meaningful exercise.

[Robin Garr]

Plan to open a St. Cosme this weekend to pair with the Mario Batali recipe for fettucine with pancetta and parsnips. Haven't had a 99 Gigondas in a long while, should be showing well. Anyone care to join me?

St. Cosme is available here, but the '99 Gigondas may represent a sourcing problem. I'll look far and wide for it tomorrow, though ... I'm in hot pursuit of a little bit of <i>foie gras</i> for dinner (connected with a story about a local source), and if I can score it, a good Rhone with a little years on it ought to be just fine. Maybe I'll work something parsnippy into the dinner, too.

Amazingly I have this bottle. The last '99 I had was the Bosquets, which was outstanding. In fact, Jenise, I opened that bottle at your house with Kriss and Traci, and we had it with filet mignon and some of the most amazing potatoes I ever had...

Oh I forgot..will have some parsnips as well!! Thanks for the reminder.

[David M. Bueker]

Ran across two bottles of the '99 St. Cosme at a store today, as well as some other '99s. It's an unappreciated vintage.

Again, will be opening mine tomorrow.

[Robin Garr]

Ran across two bottles of the '99 St. Cosme at a store today, as well as some other '99s. It's an unappreciated vintage.

Again, will be opening mine tomorrow.

No luck here, durn burn it! Closest I could come was an unfamiliar 2002. No thanks. I'll have to pass, but I've been exchanging notes with Jenise and hope maybe we can pull off a "narrow-topic" Open Mike next week that I can join.

Jenise, I'd sure like to join in on this one, but believe it or not, the only '99 Gigondas left in the cellar from heck are a couple from Santa Duc, and I know that they need time so I just can't bring myself to sacrifice one. '95s and '98s we have to spare, so I'll sit this one out and watch.

[Jenise]

Geo, Robin and David, probably should have made the topic vertical to the producer (as David would have) instead of horizontal to the appellation. My bad.

But hey, the wine was quite good: raspberry fruit, olives, a little coffee-crusted beef, mucho black pepper and a curious wood-fire smokiness. That could well be a trademark of St. Cosme, but I don't know as I have no prior history with this producer. I believe this wine is only 10% syrah, but the syrah element shows a little more than that number might indicate. The flavors weave in and out of each other, but none ever gets too loud and none ever dominates the conversation. It's drinking splendidly right now, has the right acidity for its age and the tannins are soft and pliable. One of the more perfect-for-what-it-is wines I've had recently.

It also bears mentioning that there could hardly be a better match for the Babbo parsnip-and-bacon fettucine dish I made for dinner--the raspberry grenache bonded with the sweet parsnips and the wood smoke found the bacon, and the body/richness match was spot-on.

[David M. Bueker]

Well I just got mine open, and it's showing many of the same traits as yours Jenise, though I am finding herbal elements dominant. There's lots of rosemary to go along with all that pepper. I can see what you are saying about smokiness. The texture of this bottle is very smooth, so I'm glad we opened them. There does not seem to be any real reason to age it any longer, though it has enough stuffing to last a while.

I'm grilling up a steak later this evening, and I will follow the bottle for several hours.

[Jenise]

I don't remember rosemary, but my bottle didn't present herb-dominant the way yours is showing. I might have missed that point entirely though since I only pecked at my glass during the first hour, as I was busy on the meal. The parsnips, which I was nibbling on throughout both raw and cooked, might have blanked that out somewhat, too.

Agreed that there's no reason to hold these further, though there's no reason to "Drink up!" immediately either other than because they're so good.

[David M. Bueker]

The herbal note faded as the wine opened up. By the time I got to my steak there was more red fruit and of course that pepper never went away. Since I like my steak VERY peppery it was a good match.

Since most of the posters in this thread seem to agree the 99s are drinking well now, I have a general question: does the typical rule of thumb about Chateauneuf de Papes closing down between years 5 and 8 from vintage not apply to Gigondas? I'm not a big Rhone hound, but I would have thought there'd be strong similarities in drinking windows for the two wines. (Of course, this question reflects my general frustration with the lack of dumb-phase guidance for most age-worthy reds, which the recent thread on drinking young Burgs just stoked. I'd never before read JC's observation that 1ers and Grand Crus tend to close between years 2 and 8.)

[David M. Bueker]

I certainly think that Gigondas matures more quickly.

Jenise, I'd sure like to join in on this one, but believe it or not, the only '99 Gigondas left in the cellar from heck are a couple from Santa Duc, and I know that they need time so I just can't bring myself to sacrifice one. '95s and '98s we have to spare, so I'll sit this one out and watch.

Geo and everyone, there is a Perrin tasting tonite in town!! Some good wines on the agenda I am sure with the big cheese present!!!

Jenise, I'd sure like to join in on this one, but believe it or not, the only '99 Gigondas left in the cellar from heck are a couple from Santa Duc, and I know that they need time so I just can't bring myself to sacrifice one. '95s and '98s we have to spare, so I'll sit this one out and watch.

Geo and everyone, there is a Perrin tasting tonite in town!! Some good wines on the agenda I am sure with the big cheese present!!!

There's one in Ann Arbor tomorrow night, with Marc Perrin in attendance.

We have Thomas, the winemaker honcho?