To help get things moving here are some assorted notes from the last few months -
July 11, 2009
If I believed Draper’s ’97 back label, I should have drunk
Ridge California Bridgehead Mataro 1995 – Alc.13.5% –within 4-5 years but, for me another 7 years later, it was just fine with its depth and darkening texture of spices and touches of tar together with some mature sweet dark fruit, full body and decent length. The American oak ageing was by now perfectly integrated with its only overt trace being a certain perfume on the nose. There is a family resemblance to Bandol but this was less austere and savoury and a touch sweeter in its fruit; 17/20+.
September 23, 2008
Bandol Cuvée Spéciale 1997 – Domaine Tempier – is certainly my second ranking wine of the month so far after Terre Brune 1994 on which I wrote a separate enthusiastic WTN. Easy drinking like a lot of 1997s and quite succulent, it showed rich dark fruit and attractive aromas of leather and tar together with enough structure and grip for balance; this is only Tempier’s basic cuvée and I am expecting greater things from my bottles of Migoua, Tourtine and Cabassou; 16.5/20++.
March 24, 2008
Château de Pibarnon – Bandol AOC – 1998 – Alc. 13% - (€ 25 for 2004).
The estate consists of 44 hectares of red grapes, of which 90% are Mourvèdre and 10% Grenache, and 4 hectares of white Clairette.
http://www.pibarnon.com/ .
C: Mature carmine but not quite limpid (my fault for not standing up the bottle long enough before decanting).
N: Dark red rose petals, tar, leather and liquorice.
P: Restrained dark fruit, good density, depth, structure, harmonious shape in the mouth and length showing similar aromas to the nose together with some Provence herbs. As always, this Pibarnon combines aromatic complexity and meridional sun with classical restraint and elegance. I consistently admire and enjoy Pibarnon but have never been really excited by it as by some Tempier. 16.5/20.
November 11, 2007
Bandol AOC 1997 – Château Vannières – Alc. 13% - (EUR 23,75 for 2002). Estate’s red vines 75% Mourvèdre, 25% Grenache.
Reports for at least two years following the vintage declared that Mourvèdre was very successful in 1997 due to the fine Autumn and that, consequently, Bandol was an exception to the generally uninspiring results that year in the South of France; more recent reports have been far less favourable. On the strength of the early reports and the odd tasting I bought quite a few bottles of various Bandols and buried them in a bin under a lot of other bottles for earlier drinking. This is the first I have tried since their youth.
C: Fine deep red with no bricking.
N: On first sniff strong barnyard aromas but with about 30 minutes air dark fruit came up and integrated nicely with a residual wet leather notes.
P: Fully open by now and showing complex dark fruit aromas mixed with leather, muslin dust and tar with rose petal and faint provençal herb overtones. Generously mouth-filling with ripe structure, class and typically Bandol hints of austerity, but perhaps less of the last than in a more rigorous vintage. Ripely enjoyable and tending to support the earlier thesis of exceptional Mourvèdre in 1997 while showing some of the “easy” character of that vintage in most parts of France. 16.5/20.
November 2, 2007
Cairanne Côtes du Rhône Villages « Haut Coustias » 1998 - Domaine de l’Oratoire Saint-Martin (F&F.Alary) - Alc. 13% . (EUR 13,95 only for 2005 vintage).
To accompany our All Saints’ dinner of deliciously tender lamb, I pulled out this bottle and contrived to start November’s villages on a high note.
This blend of 60% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache and 20% Syrah 65 year old vines is far from being a run-in-the mill Côtes du Rhône villages (“CDRV”). The Alary brothers are bending the appellation rules which demand 50% Grenache minimum and, in doing so, attain an elegance and class which is rare in Cairanne, let alone other CDRVs. Haut-Coustias can seem quite austere when young and previous bottles of 1998 have up to now been holding something back but, after nine years, this one delivers.
C: Still quite deep ruby red with no perceptible bricking in the rim. (There was a lot of dark cherry coloured sediment sticking to the lower side of the bottle, no doubt partly the product of no fining nor filtration.)
N: Quite reserved but all there with a beautifully round and complex medley of red and dark fruit with dashes of tar and provençal herbs.
P: Again not particularly big but deep, round and velvety woven with many but integrated aromatic strands out of which I thought that I detected cherry,kirsch, raspberry coulis, rose petals, sweet plum, cooked tomato, tar, basil and other local herbs. Structure is more present than in a Grenache dominated wine but resolved and, unusually, the aromatics are more pronounced towards the finish and on the after taste than on the nose.
The generous elegance of this wine reminds me a little of a slightly less sweet and less wooded version of a traditional Rioja. I doubt whether the Wine Advocate/Spectator school of criticism would allow it more points than the mid/upper eighties because it is insufficiently spectacular. However, for me, and for once Germaine agrees, this is a lovely wine at its peak; 17/20 and first class QPR. I must order the 2005.
There may be others which I can't locate right now. I love Bandol so this Open Mike is not going to be any hardship at all
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The challenge is to find good Mourvèdre examples from elsewhere.
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