Notes from a Southern Rhone tasting.
Georges Gardet Cuvee St. Flavy Champagne (nv) – very pleasant starter, clean fresh nose, no secondary characteristics at what must be a very young age, tasty apple and crisp clean finish.
2009 Vieux Lazaret blanc – interesting nutty cantaloupe nose, quite light in colour, pleasant fruit, clean finish. Nice wine but not up to the cost IMH.
2003 Beaucastel VV Roussanne – always a wonderful wine and very long lived, we had a duplication where two people brought this. No problem, we had one up front and one at the end with cheese. Fair bit of colour – a mid straw, and a sweet, complex maturing nose with elements of honeysuckle that later manifested as peach. Full mouth feel, and excellent length.
2001 Tardieu Laurent Vacqueyras Vielles Vignes – no one believed that I’d brought anything from this century, but I knew we’d have a procession of Chateauneuf and wanted to make the point that there are other things made in the Rhone. Good colour, a little pepper and spice in an otherwise berry nose, and a bit of meat as well. Tons of fruit in the mouth and very good length. Very enjoyable. Should have bought more than I did!
2003 Dom. Relagnes Cuvee Vigneronne CNduP – not a familiar producer for me, but the wine showed very well, staring with some attractive anise and cherry in the nose, and following through still softly tannic and sweet in the mouth. One of the more civilized 2003s.
2003 Dom. du Pegau Cuvee Reserve CNduP – this was really bizarre. Although the wine gleaned huge point scores from the critics, I found it to be – strange! A softer, sweeter nose, and a softer sweeter wine, sappy and without the complexity and subtlety I look for in Pegau. Yes, it did have lots of herbal and fruit notes, but not melded together in any particularly interesting way. You may say that the wine is just young and that the critics will be proven to be correct given enough time. Fine, but you couldn’t tell that from me, and I was actually happy to see that I didn’t have any in my cellar. I’ll console myself with vintages like 01, 04 and 05.
1990 Vieux Donjon CNduP - I couldn’t believe this wine was in such great shape, seeming quite youthful. Sweet Grenache nose with white pepper, a tad of rubber, and some leather. Good fruit and a lengthy finish. Good wine and put the Pegau in the4 shade as far as I was concerned. Time to locate my small stash, I think.
2001 Vieux Donjon CNduP – a nice pairing with the 1990. This wine had a deeper spiced fruit nose with a very enticing floral hint (lavender?). The nose continued to expand in the glass for some time. Bright fruit on palate and soft tannins. Entering the plateau stage – no rush.
1998 Beaucastel CNduP – a slightly ripe tarry nose and cherry jam on the palate, smooth and long. Very approachable – surprisingly so at this age and from this vintage. Won’t be as long a hold as other vintages (been thinking about getting into my 89 and 90 one of these days)
Finished, fittingly, with the second bottle of VV Roussanne which showed pretty much identically to the first bottle.
Next event – Northern Rhone.
I pretty much avoided the vintage after tasting some of them early (did buy a couple of the Cristias, the Donjon and the Vatican, which seem to avoid the 'whack in the face with bucket of jam' thing).