WTN: Recent Northern Rhônes

Three wines that came out storage recently and were consumed over the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays, sometimes in festive situations that made detailed note-taking difficult.



Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône Brezeme 2000 Vieilles Vignes
Brézème is a near-forgotten village in the northern Rhône – which means it’s pure 100% Syrah - allowed to add its own name to the Côtes du Rhône appellation. Negociant Texier – who seems to have made wine from every Côtes du Rhône Village – caused some controversy when he first bottled from Brézème. The VV were so acidic that those who opened bottles quickly warned the rest of us to age them several years, while the basic Brézème fell apart within a year or two and I recall it being awful. So, all things considered, I was pretty nervous about opening this. To my delight, it was a bright, exuberantly fruity – almost giddily so – Syrah, like a Saint-Joseph given extra doses of sugar candy. For all that we sometimes think of syrah as a black fruit wine, with that bacon-like texture in the northern Rhône, this conjured up images of chocolate strawberries with bright acidity, the combination such that my wife suggested it tasted sweet. The most amazing thing about this wine was its youthful excitement; despite its age, it was like opening up a well-made cool climate Syrah - and yet there was probably a few teaspoonfuls of tannin floating around in our various glasses and the eventually emptied bottle. A treat – and vindication for for occasionally cellaring wines that don't necessarily look like they demand it.


Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage,1999
A black wine with a very meaty aroma. This was more like a serious St-Joseph or even a youngish Hermitage. The aroma opened up with some olives, and then some of the burned bacon we get from Northern Rhône syrah. Very lean, quite austere, very mineral, quite markedly serious. Not your everyday Crozes. And to be honest, I think it could have gone a lot longer in the cellar, for while only some of the fruit had dissipated, and while it had not dumbed down, nor had it turned into something else.


Jean Lionnet Cornas Domaine de Rocherpertuis 1997:
On initially opening and tasting this wine for a pre-Christmas gathering, I hesitated on whether to serve it, the wine seemed so violently backwards and acidic. But we warmed up to it with a lovely Bordeaux and by the time we got to the Cornas we were well in the mood for such a rustic wine. The color was a dark, bloody red with noticeable brick starting to emerge. The nose was stubbornly awkward to begin with, the harsh acidity seeming to have its own aroma that dominated everything. But given time to breathe, it offered up a wild texture heavy on the herbs and meat, light on the fruit, with chewy tannins still highly prevalent. I’d figured a decade after bottling was a good time to drink this, but I think now that it could have gone much further. Certainly a wine that needed some air time to come good. Not sure if this qualified as great Cornas (though my knowledge of vintage Cornas is limited anyway); I had hoped it was going to come out of this decade of maturity offering up something a little more sophisticated. Instead, it remained the same wild wine Cornas is famous for in its youth, and if that’s your style – and I enjoy it – it was a wine well kept.

Thanks, Tony.

Graillot is... wow.

Drink the 2004s while waiting for the 2005s!

Thanks, Tony.

Graillot is... wow.

Drink the 2004s while waiting for the 2005s!

Joe

Good to hear from you. It's been a while since we shared a glass... I remember opening a highly-recommended young Graillot Crozes somewhere earlier this Century and realizing that it was such a tight, mineral type wine that it really needed time to come around. My 1999 appeared to prove as much. Still, by your own recommendation, sounds like the right vintage can indeed open up young. If I see an 04, I'll buy it.

Cheers

tony

I just picked up a bottle of 2005 Texier Cotes du Rhone Brezieres. Don't recall if it's the VV, though.

The Graillot sounds awesome-will have to look for it!

Brian-
I have tasted both the 2005 Texier CdR Brezeme and the CdR Brezeme Pergault (which I think is now the equivalent of the VV bottle).
Both are very enjoyable. I love the wine maker's transparent style. The regular Brezeme I think is better for current drinking. The Pergault is bigger with more depth but seemed a little disjointed and edgy recently and I'm hoping will be better with cellar time.

Tony, I enjoyed reading your notes. Hart Davis Hart had the 04 Graillot CH on sale recently for $20. I bought a bunch, I love this wine.

Thanks for the notes, Tony.

I will let my Graillots sleep in the cellar a bit longer.

I just picked up a bottle of 2005 Texier Cotes du Rhone Brezieres. Don't recall if it's the VV, though.

The Graillot sounds awesome-will have to look for it!

Alain Graillot is the Chave of Crozes-Hermitage. Every wine of his I've had I've loved, though none of them has ever been mature.

Mark Lipton

I just picked up a bottle of 2005 Texier Cotes du Rhone Brezieres. Don't recall if it's the VV, though.

The Graillot sounds awesome-will have to look for it!

Alain Graillot is the Chave of Crozes-Hermitage. Every wine of his I've had I've loved, though none of them has ever been mature.

Mark Lipton

Graillot's wines age amazingly well. I attended a vertical well back into the 80s a few years ago; none tasted old. I would not say that the earlier vintages were immature but they kept the Graillot trademark brightness, sour cherry and burgundian elegance together with a smoothing down of the angles. I have finished my 95s and 96s in the last two years; delicious and still quite youthful. They taste good very young, too; see my WTN on 2006.

Alain Graillot is the Chave of Crozes-Hermitage. Every wine of his I've had I've loved, though none of them has ever been mature.

Mark Lipton

I'm a great fan of Graillot too, and has been ever since the first vintage of his, 1989, appeared here at the Swedish Monopoly. I do in fact still have one bottle of that vintage in my cellar. The only vintage I have been a bit skeptical about is the 1997, which I tasted this week, in fact. A marvelous nose, reeking of barnyard, but a searing acidity that was a bit too much, even for an acidity lover like me. I could sit and smell the wine forever, though. It was in 1997 that a worker got killed at the winery when he fell into the crusher. The shock it must have been, might have affected the whole wine making process that year.

Last time I had one of the more mature vintages was the 1990 about a year ago. Now wonderfully developed. Very meaty, maybe thinning out a bit, but with a very fine elegance. 2-3 years ago I had the 1990 "La Guirode" (his top cuvée) together with the first and only woodcock I've had the pleasure to eat and it was a great combination.

The character that often makes me recognize Graillots Crozes is the very aromatic, flowery nose. It makes me think of the sensation you get when you open the door and enter a florist's shop. It is fascinating how this floweriness is preserved for such a long time, even when the meatiness has developed, it often still lingers in the background. I had the 1995 less than a year ago and it was still mostly fruity and floral. Very much Graillot and with several years ahead.

When the '05 was released here in November there was in fact some fighting among the customers at the monopoly store to get hold of tsome of the limited number of bottles.

Cheers, Anders

Anders

Very interesting. I am 99% certain that the 97 was the one Graillot I had young that tasted overly acidic and out of balance. I would agree with you that a death in the winemaking process could have affected the entire vintage. Anyway, I'm glad I cellared this '99 and as I get my home cellar finished and hopefully pick up more of the Graillots, I'll know to keep them a decade or more. I'm also glad that the young Brezemes are drinking well, as that VV was simply delicious.

Nobody commented on the Cornas: does anyone drink from this appellation?

And while we're talking Northern RHones, I had two more bottles in the boxes I pulled out of storage:

1997 Chapoutier M Hermitage La Sizeranne
1996 Jaboulet P Crozes Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert

Who would open them when?

Tony

I'm a great fan of Graillot too, and has been ever since the first vintage of his, 1989, appeared here at the Swedish Monopoly.

Anders, this is a small point. 1989 is at variance with my memory of having tasted wines back to the mid-80s at that vertical. So I checked in Remington Norman's "Rhône Renaissance" and he confirms that Graillot's first vintage was 1985. Perhaps you meant that 1989 was the first vintage imported by the Swedish monopoly.

(Unfortunately I cannot put my hand on my manuscript notes of that vertical and, if I posted here, it must have been during the Netscape interlude from which I do not know how to access archives.)

Nobody commented on the Cornas: does anyone drink from this appellation?

And while we're talking Northern RHones, I had two more bottles in the boxes I pulled out of storage:

1997 Chapoutier M Hermitage La Sizeranne
1996 Jaboulet P Crozes Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert

Who would open them when?

Tony, I am a big admirer of Cornas but curiously have not opened very much at home. That is because I think they need time and my oldest vintage is 1995, often still tough in northern Rhône. Your note is a useful reminder to start opening my 97s (from Clape and Voge)which are likely to be the most forward of the series. In recent years, the wines from Clape are becoming less rustic (there is my note on a vertical from December 2006 in the archive). I guess that opinions will be divided on whether this is a good thing.

My last Graillot Crozes from 1996 was very good a year ago as were the previous bottles but Thalabert tends to be much tougher. I have some too, I think, as yet untouched and on balance I feel it should do no harm to wait a bit, although the 96 high acidity is a bit of a worry; will it soften or will it become more dominant if body and fat recede? If you open it, please write a note. I had a 6-pack of 94 and only the last two bottles, drunk c.2004, really sang.

Re Chapoutier's Sizeranne 97, this is a forward year and it should be drinking well although a couple or so more years should do no harm.

I'm a great fan of Graillot too, and has been ever since the first vintage of his, 1989, appeared here at the Swedish Monopoly.

Anders, this is a small point. 1989 is at variance with my memory of having tasted wines back to the mid-80s at that vertical. So I checked in Remington Norman's "Rhône Renaissance" and he confirms that Graillot's first vintage was 1985. Perhaps you meant that 1989 was the first vintage imported by the Swedish monopoly.

That's exactly what I meant, Tim. 1989 was the first vintage that appeared here in Sweden, sorry for the unclear writing. I have never had any older Graillot than that.
Cheers, Anders

the 96 high acidity is a bit of a worry; will it soften or will it become more dominant if body and fat recede? If you open it, please write a note.

High acidity was prevalent in the Cornas, too. It was also alarmingly present in a 99 Gigondas I opened last night (domaine du Cayron), which we'll probably talk about when I post a separate Recent Southern Rhones thread. That Gigondas still had plenty of body and fat, aroma and fruit, texture and finish, and the acidity was ultimately hidden by the accompanying food, but being the second such older vintage bottle I'd had this experience with of late (i..e. this Gigondas and the Cornas), I was starting to wonder if it was a fault, some negative result of short-term storage. So, excuse my ignorance, is there some part of the wine storage process that turns wines so acidic without notably damaging the other elements that make up the tasting experience?

Tony

Tony,

High acidity in a 97, from any french region, red or white, is unusual if nature was allowed to follow its course. I recently encountered the same in a bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet Boudriottes, I think, from Ramonet. I suspected added tartaric acid and perhaps the same applies to your Cornas. Highly acidic 99 is also a surprise, although the vintage was not in general acid deficient; I recently opened a 99 top cuvée Gigondas from Espiers; brett not acidity was a problem; not for me, who likes animal flavours if not dominant, but my son complained.

This one did not come out of storage; it came with a friend for dinner who knowss I love a good St.-Jospeh almost as much as life itself. Thought I should add the notes while we're on the subject of the Northern Rhone:

J. L. Chave Saint-Joseph “Offerus” 2004

Dark ruby purple with impressively pure legs. A potent nose of meat, the “bacon” perhaps a little more burned than in a Cote-Rotie (i.e., not as delicate), with a considerable herbal touch, a lean mineral streak but also some black-currant fruit wafting up from the nose too. The palate brought forth more of this fruit, raspberries and strawberries dancing with the blackberry and blackcurrant, all complementing an otherwise taut, meaty, classically Syrah profile. Very acidic too, yet with plenty tannin sticking to the cheeks and a long long juicy finish to round it all off. It’s no surprise that this is considered the benchmark St.-Joseph: it has everything you would expect from the appellation and more. For some people, that might be too much more: this is not your everyday, easy-going, gulpable St.-Joseph but rather a serious bottle of wine commanding a proper price and decent respect. It could easily go a few years in the cellar, but allowed to breathe in either the glass or the bottle, and sipped slowly, especially with the right food, it shows short of magnificent.

Nobody commented on the Cornas: does anyone drink from this appellation?

Yes, I love Cornas, but don't know Lionnet's wines at all (most recently I was involved in a petition drive to stop proposed construction in Cornas AOC that would've destroyed some very special vineyards). I mostly have Clape and Verset, with a bit of Allemand and Voge and I age them almost forever. They do tend to turn rather feminine with age, but 10 years isn't that old, even for a lower-acid year like '97.

Mark Lipton

Nobody commented on the Cornas: does anyone drink from this appellation?

Yes, I love Cornas, ........but 10 years isn't that old, even for a lower-acid year like '97.

Mark Lipton

I picked up a few bottles of the 1997 Clape Cornas on close-out for $20 a few years ago. It was drinking very nicely ~18 months ago with some of the feminine characteristics you mention. I'm not sure this is a 15+ year wine, but who cares as it is drinking pretty stinking good right now.
Take care,
Redwinger

Tony,

High acidity in a 97, from any French region, red or white, is unusual if nature was allowed to follow its course.

Interestingly, we just had a tasting of 1997 Northern Rhônes at our wine club AuZone and it was surprising that most of the wines had a stinkingly high acidity. We had not expected that either, but perhaps it is wrong to be categorical about this. I would doubt that the acidity of all the wines we tasted would have been manipulated.
One Cornas , Alain Voge's Vieilles Vignes, was included. A few of the group quite liked it, , but for me it did not sing. I found it a bit raw and metallic. then I am no big fan of Cornas. I thought I was until I attended a Clape vertical. Most of the wines at that tasting were earthy and rustic. Associations of very old, well used leather boots were quite frequent...

Here are some short notes from our tasting of 1997 Northern Rhônes:

Crozes-Hermitage, Graillot Lovely nose, extreme barnyard and manure. Rather lean taste, unfortunately, with a sharp, unbalanced acidity.
Cornas, Vieilles Vignes, A. Voge A bit closed, perfumed almost minty. Some toffee notes too. Fresh acidity, a bit raw and metallic. Not much body. Lacking charm, but holds up well in the glass.
Côte-Rôtie, Siegneur de Maugiron, Delas Fine, classical Rhône smoke and black pepper. Fresh flowery notes. coffee. Fresh acidity, still good fruit. Nice grip. A bit dry aftertaste. Quite good
Côte-Rôtie, Jamet Powerful and deep. Developed, meaty nose but also still with the black pepper and smoked bacon. Fat and smoky taste with a fresh acidity. Nice, rather furry tannins. Long, a bit coarse aftertaste. Quite good.
Côte-Rôtie, Château de Ampuis, Guigal Rather wood dominated nose with toffee, vanilla and cookie dough, but also nice Syrah character behind. Also strong note of cloves. Fresh, smoky and meaty taste. Round and fat. Furry tannins. Long, warm aftertaste. Nice wine, but it does not take off (for me, that is, since it was the clear winner of the tasting).
Hermitage, Les Bessards, Delas Wonderfully stylish Syrah nose with all the black pepper, smoke and flowery notes I like. Great acidity. Mouth watering. coarse tannins. Flowers and black pepper comes back in the taste. Maybe it ends with a touch high acidity. A very fine wine, in my opinion, but several of the others complained about a high level of ethyl acetate in this wine, while I rather found it aromatic.
Hermitage, La Chapelle, Jaboulet Strangely unfresh, aged nose of old apples, dried fruit and burned sugar. Almost a bit like an Amarone. Oxidized? Not at all the same fresh acidity in the taste here, but it is clearly better than the nose. Tasty with good body and chewable tannins. Not much fruit left though. Quite OK, but the clear looser of the tasting.

Cheers, Anders

Tony,

High acidity in a 97, from any French region, red or white, is unusual if nature was allowed to follow its course.

Interestingly, we just had a tasting of 1997 Northern Rhônes at our wine club AuZone and it was surprising that most of the wines had a stinkingly high acidity. We had not expected that either, but perhaps it is wrong to be categorical about this. I would doubt that the acidity of all the wines we tasted would have been manipulated.

That was a most interesting tasting, Anders. I wish I could have been there. The 97s which I have had all have enough acidity to taste like Northern Rhône, unlike a lot of 03s, but they have been lower in acidity than typical years and much lower than 96. It is my guess that, if you had tasted them next to the 96s or 98s for the same wines, you would have found them noticeably less acidic.

I would agree that it is unlikely that all those wines had added tartaric acid. The Graillot sounds a real oddity from that normally reliable producer; curiously 97 is the only year of his from 95 to 99 which I have never had in my cellar. On the other hand, I think that I have the Voge and will pull one out soon when I have suitable food.

Anders

Interesting reviews. You seem to have been rather underwhelmed by everything on show; the highest compliment you pay anything is "quite good" and "nice wine." Makes me wonder: do we geeks have exceptionally high standards, or do we occasionally dismiss wines others would surely love?

Tony

It is my guess that, if you had tasted them next to the 96s or 98s for the same wines, you would have found them noticeably less acidic.

You might be right, Tim, and I certainly would expect that the acidities in the same 96s might be higher, but since these really had quite strong acidities, I'm not sure if the same would be valid for the 98s.
Anders

Anders

Interesting reviews. You seem to have been rather underwhelmed by everything on show; the highest compliment you pay anything is "quite good" and "nice wine." Makes me wonder: do we geeks have exceptionally high standards, or do we occasionally dismiss wines others would surely love?

Tony

Tony,
I wrote those notes in quite a haste and thus happened to omit my assessment of some of them. In fact I liked most of them quite a lot. The sixth wine, Les Bessards was very fine, at least I thought so. Quite a few of the rest of the group complained about a disturbing level of ethyl acetate, but I just thought it was an aromatic wine. I'll edit my post to add some more info about the wines.
Anders