WTN: Noland Brothers do a southern Rhone ABC tasting

Bob, James and Tom assisted by Ruth and Renee

Wine tasting theme: Southern Rhone, Anything But Chateauneuf du Pape.

First tasted blind. Then with two cheeses, manchego and aged white cheddar.

Wine A
Deep garnet red. Red raspberry nose with undertones of earth and oak. With time, some barnyardy notes. Most interesting nose. Big wine with tannic grip on the midpalate and a long finish with a slightly bitter tannic after bite. Midpalate nicely balanced with spicy fruit and tingly acidity.
Bob: Interesting and evolving nose.
James: Best nose with pepper spices and dark fruit. Complex wine with black and white ground pepper, fruit and spice taste. Heavy tannins, high acid. Need to open up and needs food. Some fruit.

Wine B
Deep garnet red. Sweetish fruit nose of ripe fruit especially raisins. Maybe somewhat overextracted. Softer wine with nice smooth midpalate, sweet fruit, ripe tannins and just enough acidity to balance. Medium to long finish of fruit and acidity.
Bob: overextracted, alcohol nose, and soft
James: Sweet red raspberry nose. Simpler soft wine, not complex, very light acid. Taste of sweet berry fruit.

Wine C
Garnet red with purple tinge. Blueberry and a hint of black raspberry and earthy tones on the nose. Slight brettiness to the nose also. Most aged of the wines. Drinking very nicely with good balance, nice fruit and sweet tannins. Finish medium length of sweet raspberry cordials – somewhat like Chambord.
Bob: Nice nose, big boy, long finish
James: Nice wine with good fruit in the nose. Although the taste starts out nice it doesn’t follow through. Hollow spot in the taste profile.

Wine D
Garnet red purple. Barnyardy Chateauneuf du Pape type nose with fruit and oaky undertones. Biggest wine of the group. Powerful tannins that make your tongue sprout hair. Blueberries and plums on the midpalate with nice acidity. Long finish. This wine evolved the most with time.
Bob: Oak, tree bark nose gets better with time. Acidic wine that needs time. Tannins hide the fruit.
James: Dirty socks, rocks, and twigs on the nose. High acid, big tannins. Needs time and food. Big wine.

With food:

Wine A: with manchego the wine gets a sweet earthiness. Yummy!
Bob, James and Ruth: best wine with manchego

Wine B: Really nice with manchego as the wine has more sweet fruit and acidity.
Bob: 3rd best wine with manchego tied with wine C
James: 3rd best with with manchego
Ruth: 4th best with manchego

Wine C: This wine dies somewhat with manchego as the cheese overpowers the wine
Bob: 3rd best wine with manchego tied with wine C
James: 4th best wine with manchego.
Ruth: 2nd best wine with manchego

Wine D: Good wine with manchego as it enhances the fruit a bit.
Bob: 2nd best wine with manchego.
James: 2nd best wine with manchego.
Ruth: 3rd best wine with manchego.

Wines with white cheddar: Not as good a match as the manchego but everyone generally agreed that wines A and B generally matched well with the wine and but wines C and D did not go well at all with cheddar and most thought wine D turned quite bitter with this cheese.

Best wine overall using both taste and food friendliness to rate: Wine A
2nd place: Wine D
3rd place: Wine C
4th place: Wine B
All agreed that the wines were all good drinkable wines but some were definitely better than others.

Wines revealed:
Wine A 2004 Vacqueras Les Christins, Perrin and Fils, Bob’s wine

Wine B: 2007 Coudoulet de Beaucastel Cotes du Rhone, Tom’s wine

Wine C: 2006 Cotes du Rhone Vin Sorbes Les Cornuds, Perrin and Fils Bob’s 2nd wine

Wine D: 2004 Vacqueras Le Clos, Montirius, James’ wine

Wine tasting theme: Southern Rhone, Anything But Chateauneuf du Pape.

Then with two cheeses, manchego and aged white cheddar.

!!

Why not something more regional.

Long list of cheeses from the Rhone and I think St Marcellin is delicious and pretty widely available. And I can see it doing well with some of these red wines. (Although I suppose I can see the logic behind the harder aged cheeses as well)

Wine tasting theme: Southern Rhone, Anything But Chateauneuf du Pape.

Then with two cheeses, manchego and aged white cheddar.

!!

Why not something more regional. Long list of cheeses from the Rhone and I think St Marcellin is delicious and pretty widely available.

Hi Rahsaan,

Good point. However, I must point out we did this tasting in Ohio on New Years Day. Regional cheeses are not readily available at most stores in Ohio. We would have had to gone to a speciality cheese shop to get the type of cheeses you suggest. Alas, Ohio's cheese selection is even better than what I have in Sault, Canada. Such is life in most parts of the midwest.

I was wondering when you were going to post notes on this tasting. Having three wines from Perrin was really interesting. The wines were amazingly different. I still cannot believe the differences. I assume you did not include Renee and Ruth's votes as the results are different then I remember? No matter, Rhones are my favorite so it was all good for me.

I was wondering when you were going to post notes on this tasting. Having three wines from Perrin was really interesting. The wines were amazingly different. I still cannot believe the differences. I assume you did not include Renee and Ruth's votes as the results are different then I remember? No matter, Rhones are my favorite so it was all good for me.

Hi Bob,

You are partially correct, I did not include Renee's vote in the totals partially due to incomplete results on her opinions of the wines with food. Ruth's vote was counted for both the tasting and with food impresssions. I wrote down all the votes that I was given and tabulated them for these results. I don't think these results are much different from our discussions during the tasting.