WTN: Blind Rhone tasting - North v. South

Our local tasting group met up yesterday at Doug's for a blind tasting that turned out to be Northern and Southern Rhones. A fun tasting as always with some really nice wines, thanks Doug for hosting.

1999 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese
Pleasant but a bit one-note initially, but got better with air as I revisited - bright fruit, minerality, developed smokiness and creaminess with faint touches of spice and florality; very complex and layered with a round, polished mouthfeel. It's just a touch soft without the acidity or vibrancy of a top vintage, but still very well balanced, lovely to drink and my favourite of the night.

1999 Jean-Luc Colombo Hermitage Le Rouet
Bright, lifted aromatics with high toned red fruited flavours, some earth and a VA/nailpolish-like note that gets stronger with air. A little one-note in the mouth; not particularly complex or showing any distinctive Rhone character but nicely balanced.
1999 Spice Route Syrah Flagship (South African ringer)
I can't believe it's not butter!
1999 Tardieu-Laurent Cornas Coteaux
Very rich and fruit-forward, quite modern in style with ripe blueberry and black cherry fruit accented by touches of cocoa and earth. The texture's very polished and glossy, more like a New World red than anything from the Northern Rhone - balanced, though not interesting.
1999 Tardieu-Laurent St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes
Savoury and not as ripe as the Cornas poured alongside; there's still plenty of rich fruit but it's offset by an earthy flavour element and bright acids that give the fruit a nice sense of freshness.

1999 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Really good. Bright red fruited flavours encased in savoury meaty, earthy and leathery flavours; nicely balanced with grainy tannins on the back end and surprisingly bright acids that make it quite easy to drink.
1999 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée
2nd release bottling. Sweeter, riper fruit than I normally expect from Pegau but with an overlay of sauvage leathery and funky flavours. Lots of depth here and still plenty of fruit and structure suggesting a lot more time ahead of it.
1999 Domaine du Cayron Gigondas
Very tasty with ripe dark fruited flavours framed by earth and dried herbs, enjoyable though not as complex as the other 2 Southern Rhones poured alongside.

1975 Bodegas Toro Albala Montilla-Moriles Don PX Gran Reserva
Incredibly dark and viscous in appearance; intensely sweet with rich caramel, dried fruits, molasses and roasted almond flavours with moderate acidity underneath. Very nice.

Interesting set of notes, Salil. It's a bit unfair to set up a N vs. S tasting and then use Colombo and Tardieu-Laurent, two of the foremost spoofmeisters of the N Rhone, as your representatives while using Le Vieux Donjon and Pegau, two stalwart traditionalists, as your S Rhone representatives. It reminds me a bit of those old football games pitting the college All-Stars against NFL players: the outcome was rather pre-ordained and not very fun to watch.

Mark Lipton

Yup - I had a very hard time recognizing any of those 3 as Northern Rhones blind (had guessed Cabernets/new world reds), and didn't find any of the characteristics I look for in Northern Rhones even after they were unveiled.

Yup - I had a very hard time recognizing any of those 3 as Northern Rhones blind (had guessed Cabernets/new world reds), and didn't find any of the characteristics I look for in Northern Rhones even after they were unveiled.

I don't know if those two wines represent Doug's tastes (or maybe his tastes back when he bought them in '02 -- been there, done that! ) but perhaps you should open a Verset (or Gonon if you'd prefer) for him some time for calibration purposes.

Mark Lipton

Oh, Doug's familiar with both. I need to find a way to drink his Gonon some time soon, as I've consumed all of my regular 07 Saint Joseph and didn't buy enough. (At least there's the VV.)

Re. quality St. Joseph, do keep an eye out for the Fauterie SJ Les Combaud the next time you're buying from Chambers or Crush - a bit less than the Gonon, but equally good and also incredibly pure, elegant and traditionally styled.

Actually, I don't think the Tardieu-Laurent's lineup is all spoofed up. I've had T-L wines with greater typicity than you described, from Cornas and Cote-Rotie.

Generally - Syrah in the north and Grenache in the south, right?

Yup.

And re. both T-L and Colombo, I've had one or two wines of theirs that did show some typicity (have enjoyed a couple of bottles of JL Colombo Cornas Les Ruchets before) - but those have come across for me at least as more the exception than norm.

Then again my preferences for N. Rhones are also very skewed as the only producers I drink with any regularity are Verset and Allemand in Cornas, Bernard Levet in Cote Rotie, Gonon and Fauterie in SJ and Texier whereever he makes wine.

Generally - Syrah in the north and Grenache in the south, right?

Generally, Syrah - maybe blended with few percents of Viognier - in the north

CdP are generally blends of "GSM": Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. Grenache is the dominant component.
Officially 13 (or 14) types of grapes are allowed and some producers use all (Château de Beaucastel) or most of them, while other use only few or maybe even 100% Grenache.

This is true for the Red wines.

Thank you, Eli. It can be tough to keep it all straight in he head.

[David M. Bueker]

The '99 Pegau was my wine of the night, mainly because it was a fantastic pairing with the olives that were out for snacking! The wine and olives were one of those rare +2 matches where both the food item and the wine got better when served together. Liked the Donjon and Cayron as well, though I found some rather obvious alcohol on the Cayron.

I was slightly less enamored of the Donnhoff, but still enjoyed it more than several of the Northern Rhone reds.

Confession: I liked the Colombo.

That is an interesting set of choices for the two regions. Do you know the logic? Was it to make it more difficult to guess what was what? Or is that just the core of his preferences in each region?

[David M. Bueker]

That is an interesting set of choices for the two regions. Do you know the logic?

The logic was that they were all 1999s that he had in the cellar. Doug's tastes have changed quite a bit since the release of some of these wines.