TN: 1995 Michel Ogier Côte Rôtie Cuvee Belle Helene VV

This was enjoyed with (and courtesy of) our friends George and Mary Palmer, proprietors of the delightful Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet Shop in San Diego, California.

1995 Michel Ogier Côte Rôtie Cuvee Belle Helene Côte-Rozier Vieilles Vignes: Easily the best wine I’ve tasted in 2006, this dark garnet fades to pink at the rim, and offers gorgeous aromatics of bacon, black plum and garrigue, which echo loudly in the lovely flavors; the fruit is rich and beautiful, and very herbaceous, and that’s a good thing! Mary remarked that it “starts out with velvet on the front and stays velvet all the way down,” adding an impression of white pepper on the finish, and of course, the wine just gets better and better with air. Still well structured, this may well improve with further bottle age, but it’s so good now, I’d be hard pressed to keep my hands off if I had any in my stash.

Imported by Adventures in Wine, Daly City, CA

-From More Drawing of the Threes

Reporting from Day-twah,

geo t.

George,

You have a way of describing wines that makes me salivate! You mentioned Garrigue. I think of that as roasted herbs. Is that how the herbaceousness came across? Which herbs? I'm curious, as I am finally starting to get in to Syrah wines. And there is a reason!

A friend who is chair of the Philosophy Department at Wayne State U. inherited a large parcel of land from his family in the Russian River Valley. He has 7 acres of Syrah planted which is under contract with Ravenswood that ends up in their "Icon". Just for fun, I had him freeze 400 lbs in food grade plastic pales at crush and had him ship them to me around Christmas. I am fermenting the fruit now which is gorgeous. So we will have a half barrel of his Syrah by itself and will split it. Should be fun to taste that. It smells like blackberry jam just now, but I expect it to be quite fine. Of course I expect you to taste and opine!

Jim Lester
Wyncroft, LLC

[Jenise]

Yum, this makes me drool. Have never tasted a Belle Helene but am looking forward to cracking one of the 97's I own, maybe this year.

And you didn't call? I'm hurt

George,

You have a way of describing wines that makes me salivate! You mentioned Garrigue. I think of that as roasted herbs. Is that how the herbaceousness came across? Which herbs? I'm curious, as I am finally starting to get in to Syrah wines. And there is a reason!

A friend who is chair of the Philosophy Department at Wayne State U. inherited a large parcel of land from his family in the Russian River Valley. He has 7 acres of Syrah planted which is under contract with Ravenswood that ends up in their "Icon". Just for fun, I had him freeze 400 lbs in food grade plastic pales at crush and had him ship them to me around Christmas. I am fermenting the fruit now which is gorgeous. So we will have a half barrel of his Syrah by itself and will split it. Should be fun to taste that. It smells like blackberry jam just now, but I expect it to be quite fine. Of course I expect you to taste and opine!

Jim Lester
Wyncroft, LLC

Not roasted and nothing specific Jim, just a strong herbaceousness. Looking forward to trying that syrah!

Yum, this makes me drool. Have never tasted a Belle Helene but am looking forward to cracking one of the 97's I own, maybe this year.

I'm betting you'll really like it, Jenise!

And you didn't call? I'm hurt

Yeah, I'm sure you would have rushed right out to San Diego!