WTN: Chapoutier, Lafleur Petrus, Musar, Tondonia, Spring Mt.

Monthly blind tasting lunch notes.

2009 Albarino Fefinanes – this was a bit of a revelation – possibly the most interesting Albarino I’ve tasted. Tropical fruit (banana?) nose, sweet entry that lead us to believe it might be a soft wine, but then good acidity kicked in for the finish. Tasty.

2006 Chapoutier Chante Alouette Hermitage Blanc – a citrus and orange peel nose, a fair bit of colour, and well balanced and long, this wine was surprisingly advanced and we wondered if it would make the long haul as these usually do.

1999 Chapoutier Cote Rotie Les Becasses – picked up at the winery by one of our group. Intended to be a lighter lower priced wine than their top cuvees (not hard at the price the ‘La La' types go for these days) we found that this was a very enjoyable wine and not in the least light in character. Medium dark colour, with smoke and some rubber in the nose (the floral element often found was sadly AWOL), and some black olive. Nice structure with up front tannin, though not hard, well balanced with excellent acidity. Nice.

1993 Ch. La Fleur Petrus – my logic for bringing this was that first, our group is less familiar with right bank wines, and second, I figured they’d never guess that anything this good came out of this vintage, because of their ‘left bank’ thinking. It worked. The nose was a give away as to what this was, and I had a couple of left bank guesses. The slightly green (one person noted a pine element), quiet aromatic, followed by a smooth balanced wine showing a little tannin at the end was most agreeable. This was a vintage you could do fairly well in by buying selectively.

2009 Tinhorn Creek 2 Bench Red – a Bordeaux blend by a local BC winery that has been getting good press, this was a sort of Parker fruit bomb that seems to impress many (but not my own preference). It was well made, with a ripe nose featuring vanilla, lush in the mouth with soft acid, lots of fruit, and some soft tannin. A tad blowsy I thought, but a wine that should have great appeal in the marketplace.

1993 Ch. Musar – we danced all around the houses with this one, failing miserably in our attempt to narrow it down. Medium colour, a light wooded and slightly metallic nose, soft entry, nice and juicy (meaning good fruit with acidity) in the middle, but perhaps just a touch candied? Decent length.

1995 Lopez Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva – a warm nose with all sorts of fruit – dried cherries, a bit of anise, and a notable amount of coconut. Edges a bit pale, quiet sweet in the mouth and fairly long.

1998 Kays Amery Vd. Shiraz – this McLaren Vale shiraz was not a modern overly sweet travesty, it was more a balanced old style rendition. Very dark and minty gave the show away, but having said that, it was a balanced wine weighty, with a dry entry and a very dry finish, something you don’t often experience with a 1998. Well done.

1994 Spring Mountain Miravalle Alba Chevalier – an estate wine naming the vineyards from which it came, this showed immediate big fruit and lots of American vanilla oak with a hint of mint thrown in. Bit of spice and some cocoa as well. Sounds like I just sat there and sniffed this, but I did also taste it! Very nice Napa cab blend (93% CS 3% M 4%CF) with balance and smoothness.

2007 Bischofliches Konvikt Trier Ayler Kupp Riesling Spatlese – this one was rather comical because the person that brought it thought he’d pulled a Loire wine. We kept saying “This nose HAS to be Riesling!” and he kept steering us away. In fact it had a pleasant lightly petrol and lime nose, nice light weight after the heavy wines, excellent acidity and very fresh. I’d had a flash initially of possible sauvignon blanc in the noise, but the grassiness passed quickly. Maybe we’ll get to taste the wine he thought he’d brought one of these days (I kept telling him I’d never had a sweet Savennieres before!) Sorry I missed the producer on this one (I’ll amend when I find out who it was)

[Jenise]

How good it feels to be posting notes again!

2009 Albarino Fefinanes – "this was a bit of a revelation – possibly the most interesting Albarino I’ve tasted." With that, you force me fish out my own tasting note from a Spanish wine tasting I went to a few months ago wherein I served this wine: I served this cold 2009 Bodega del Palacio Fefinanes Albarino, which I've never had before, to sip on while everyone was arriving and settling in. What a traffic stopper: this was one of those rare wines where people looked at the bottle and went "oh yeah, Albarino, I've had Albarino" but then they poured a little, tasted it, and suddenly their eyes went huge and they remarked, incredulously, "THAT'S ALBARINO?" This is a game changer, an Albarino so much better than and unlike any other any of us have had that at the end of the night and in spite of the extravaganza to follow, this wine, intended only as a thirst-quencher, was mentioned by many as a favorite of the night. Very full bodied with kiwi fruit, honeydew melon, green apple on the acidity, complex minerality, sweet cream and just a hint of malt. I don't know how you can top this. Outstanding. Yesterday's bottle seemed just a tad softer (but no less lovely), but perhaps serving temperature made that difference.

2006 Chapoutier Chante Alouette Hermitage Blanc – my first guess was chardonnay--the nose was very chardonnay-like, but on the palate it was something entirely different. There, huge buised fruit and an oily richness and slightly bitter quality suggested Rhone whites, and once that was established Coop went straight to the Chante Alouette. Wish I could say I enjoyed it, but I found the high alcohol oppressive.

1999 Chapoutier Cote Rotie Les Becasses – I purchased this at the winery in Tain Hermitage two months ago (50 Euros) to serve to our friends at home in Sablet that night, but turns out we were all too sick to justify opening it so it came back to the U.S. with me. Good thinking as I'd have hated to miss out on all this wine had to offer. Seductive nose of burnt rubber, barnyard funk, smoke and raspberries. On the palate, those things, red plum and olive. Poised and perfectly balanced for acidity and tannins. An excellent bottle at the peak of its own perfection.

1993 Ch. La Fleur Petrus – Bordeaux nose with a lot of pine needles and a little smoke, both tapered as it sat in the glass. Polished and bright, smooth mouthfeel. Very good, but it's time to drink these up.

2009 Tinhorn Creek 2 Bench Red – Fat nose of black cherries in milk, a bit of vanilla accentuated by soft acids, Parker-friendly, just bottled last week. You're right, it will be popular.

1993 Ch. Musar – Presents much older than it is, indistinct and muddled with some candied, necrotic bug spray notes on the nose like one of Bill's old zins. The cork crumbled, we were told, on being removed. Other 93's with intact corks should show better.

1995 Lopez Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva – Mint and more pine needle, then coconut and orange rind sent my guesses straight to Rioja. Acids very prominent--not as good as a previous bottle not that long ago.

1998 Kays Amery Vd. Shiraz – Tarry, asphalt, big legs, ripe fruit from a warm vintage. Otherwise, what you said.

1994 Spring Mountain Miravalle Alba Chevalier – This presented more like a Washington cab to me than California, probably because I drink more Washington wines these days than California and this wine had some Red Mountainish savory qualities and minerality to it. Very good, and it showed younger than it's age.

2007 Ayler Kupp Riesling Spatlese – Pale greenish-yellow, lightly sweet, very light and fresh. No wonder we couldn't believe it was a ten year old Savennieres as Coop insisted it was--until the bottle was unveiled. It's going to take a long time to live this blooper down!

Well, one learns something new everyday here! Thanks you two, did you know about this website.....>

http://www.riasbaixaswines.com/wines/wine01.php

I have been enjoying wines from this area so much, I never knew this site existed!

Re the Becasses, Bill...I don't think Chapoutier sees it so much as a "lighter, lower class" wine than the Mordoree (although, yeah and fer shur there's a big price diff) as the Becasses is a blend of different Brunes and Blondes vineyard plots, and the Mordoree is a Cote Brunes entirely.

So the Becassess is perceived as a Cote Rotie 'blend' and the Mordoree more a 'single vineyard Brunes', and all that implies.

Since Chapoutier's main focus---certainly on the marketing side, if not also on the viticultural/oenological side---is the explication of vineyard terroir, they have to place the Mordoree on a higher level than the Becasses, I think. Chapoutier is meticulously aware of and careful about their imposed hierarchy.

Very good description of the Becasses, by the way...and dovetails with what I tasted when I was there about a year ago. I particularly love that black olive/tapenade character the wine has.

[Jenise]

Re the Becasses, Bill...I don't think Chapoutier sees it so much as a "lighter, lower class" wine than the Mordoree (although, yeah and fer shur there's a big price diff) as the Becasses is a blend of different Brunes and Blondes vineyard plots, and the Mordoree is a Cote Brunes entirely.

Hoke, Bill might have misconstrued some comments I made yesterday about the 2004 which I'd coincidentally purchased a few bottles of before we left for France. Specific reviews of it, and I think it was Parker but am not completely positive, were that the 04 was "lighter" than typical-for-the-vintage, or perhaps even Becasses itself.

Re the Becasses, Bill...I don't think Chapoutier sees it so much as a "lighter, lower class" wine than the Mordoree (although, yeah and fer shur there's a big price diff) as the Becasses is a blend of different Brunes and Blondes vineyard plots, and the Mordoree is a Cote Brunes entirely.

Hoke, Bill might have misconstrued some comments I made yesterday about the 2004 which I'd coincidentally purchased a few bottles of before we left for France. Specific reviews of it, and I think it was Parker but am not completely positive, were that the 04 was "lighter" than typical-for-the-vintage, or perhaps even Becasses itself.

Well, there you go then, Jenise....I don't pay any attention to Parker, so wouldn't be aware of any of those comments.

[Jenise]

Well, there you go then, Jenise....I don't pay any attention to Parker, so wouldn't be aware of any of those comments.

I hear the put-down implicit in that statement but it doesn't fit. I don't follow Parker and in fact I bought the wine in spite of that review; the only point in retelling it was to address how the issue of "lightness" might have been introduced into Bill's description.

I hear the put-down implicit in that statement but it doesn't fit.

Then you heard a put-down that wasn't there.

I don't pay attention to Parker. Haven't for awhile. So, couldn't possibly be aware of what his current views are, on Rhone or anything else, outside of the occasional citation of points I can't avoid seeing.

That, however, doesn't necessarily equate to a put down of views of people who do pay attention to Parker. It's just that I don't.

You're being too sensitive here, I think.

Had you said "Jancis" and I replied "Ah, but I don't pay attention to Jancis because I don't read her reviews so wouldn't have known what she was saying about this", would your feathers have ruffled so?

Hey, you make your buying decisions based on an entirely different set of criteria than mine. Doesn't make mine better or your's worse. Just is.

1999 Chapoutier Cote Rotie Les Becasses – picked up at the winery by one of our group. Intended to be a lighter lower priced wine than their top cuvees (not hard at the price the ‘La La' types go for these days) we found that this was a very enjoyable wine and not in the least light in character. Medium dark colour, with smoke and some rubber in the nose (the floral element often found was sadly AWOL), and some black olive. Nice structure with up front tannin, though not hard, well balanced with excellent acidity. Nice.

Good notes. Also, just being curious here. I have a couple of these that were bought at the winery about 7 years ago. Are they still selling this?

[Jenise]

1999 Chapoutier Cote Rotie Les Becasses – picked up at the winery by one of our group. Intended to be a lighter lower priced wine than their top cuvees (not hard at the price the ‘La La' types go for these days) we found that this was a very enjoyable wine and not in the least light in character. Medium dark colour, with smoke and some rubber in the nose (the floral element often found was sadly AWOL), and some black olive. Nice structure with up front tannin, though not hard, well balanced with excellent acidity. Nice.

Good notes. Also, just being curious here. I have a couple of these that were bought at the winery about 7 years ago. Are they still selling this?

Yes, I bought that bottle two months ago in Tain Hermitage.

[Jenise]

That, however, doesn't necessarily equate to a put down of views of people who do pay attention to Parker. It's just that I don't.

You're being too sensitive here, I think.

You're right, I was. I didn't sleep well Friday night and was a bit grouchy. But all the same, someone mentioning something said by Parker doesn't make them a follower. Had I been that, I'd have not bought the wine.