WTN: Another stunner from Eric Texier

This time the 2009 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud .

Old vine serines in a satellite appellation in the Northern Rhone not far from Cornas & Brezeme that I was completely unaware of until Eric made a post about this wine recently on Wine Disorder. Chambers got some in soon after, and right now I am really, really glad I grabbed a bunch. This is really something. An incredible perfume combining deep, pure Syrah fruit with violets and peppery spice, tremendous depth and a really polished, silken mouthfeel. Amazing balance, purity and persistence - stunning wine. Bravo Eric!

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for taking one for the team. Eric is making an incredible array of fine wines right now. This one adds some affordability ($30) to the Northern Rhone, which is quite welcome!

Sounds great. I may be opening this tonight, depends on how I feel. But I'm curious.

So 'Serine' means syrah? Is it different from the syrah elsewhere in the Northern Rhone?

Sounds great. I may be opening this tonight, depends on how I feel. But I'm curious.

So 'Serine' means syrah? Is it different from the syrah elsewhere in the Northern Rhone?

Hey Rahsaan, limited space or tradeoffs ?

Serine was the local name for syrah mostly in Cote Rotie back in the no clone days (pre 60s).
Most of the clones selected in the 60-70s came from the southern rhone. They were selected mostly because of high yields and ability to be grown on wire for machine harvesting. These clones were local cultivars of syrah totally different than the northern syrah. So today, by extension, serine means northern cultivar syrah, which produces small loose bunches, are "bushy" (very difficult to grow on wires), and very often olive shape berries. The taste of the resultant wines is also very different. More rustic (high tannins) and often very floral (violet).

So mostly, every syrah vine from the northern rhone over 40 years of age are serine. These were planted between 1943 and 1955.

Please guys, try to keep one or two bottles. I'd say that you get less than 25% of what this wine will give some day.
Glad you liked it though, Salil. This is a new terroir for me and the wine and I are just begining to understand each other!

Cheers

Eric

So mostly, every syrah vine from the northern rhone over 40 years of age are serine. These were planted between 1943 and 1955.

Thanks for this. So I guess other people could call their wine serine as well, if they so chose.

Always curious to taste a new terroir, even if I imagine it will take a few vintages for your vineyard work to be more evident. That said, I hear the folks who owned it before you were hippies who treated the soils/vines pretty well.

As far as my tradeoffs, I feel a sore throat coming on and am not sure if I'm going to have any wine tonight. Had a few tastes last night, including 2006 Crozes from Jean-Claude Marsanne (what a name for a Northern Rhone winemaker). I had never heard of the domaine but it was perfectly pleasant in a soft easy-to-drink way. I was a non-wine-geek party so it was more than acceptable given the circumstances (and other offerings).

Not hippies but fundamentalist protestants who don't believe in technological progress. So no fongicides either organic (cupper or sulfur).

Really, I can't see what I could do better than what they have done there for generations.

So I'd say that if I can achieve improvement to that wine, it will mostly come from my understanding of the spirit of this very specific terroir.
The vineyard is at its best.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for the details Eric. I have put two of my three bottles away for some extended sleep. I'll have to check on one though.

Hi Salil -

Thank you for the note. Unfortunately, I have not had enough of Texier's wines. Too bad that so few make it over to Massachusetts.

Eric - Nice to see you contributing to this board. I appreciate the work that you have done to keep Brézème's viticultural tradition alive.