For some time now we’ve been wanting to have a side-by-side tasting of wines from our corner of France and Italy, as an opportunity to compare the wines, reflect on the differences of their single varietals and generally have a great time focusing on wines from regions that we love.
The wines were served semi-not-really-blind-but-sort of, in that labels were hidden, only i knew what the actual bottles were and others only knew the overall theme of the evening and order was random. Bottles opened about an hour ahead, and tasted throughout at a long evening including over dinner. For all wines, time in the glass really helped bring out nuance and it was great to follow the wines over several hours, in a way that only opening one bottle at a time doesn’t permit.
Wine 1: Guillaume Gilles 2012 Cornas ‘La Combe de Chaillot’: dark, deep purple core. Bit of reduction on initial nose but this blew off. Striking notes of cracked black pepper, leading to herbal thyme aromas. Really classically northern rhone syrah, definitely on the more complex savoury spectrum with only subtle, darker fruits lurking. Lovely concentration on the palate, rocky and structured with great balance and persistence. My first wine from this producer and I was impressed. Groups unanimous WOTN, and I really look forward to trying his main Cornas cuvee.
Wine 2: Dante Rivetti 2010 Barbaresco ‘Bric’ Micca’: dark core, brick red colour on the rim. Really open nose of chocolate and mint. I could not shift the image of the Mint Aero chocolate bar from my mind! Palate though was a bit muddled: soft, integrated slightly sweet tannins but strucutre was a bit of a let down and the freshness was a little lacking. Over time, some interesting tobacco notes and a bit more floral tones emerge. This is a clear modernist style (around 60%+ ageing in barrique) and for me was an interesting lesson in how the oak regimen can drastically strip out nebbiolo typicity: the structure got totally smoothed out and the elevage seemed to trample on the classic aromatics you look for in a neb.
Wine 3: Rene Lquin-Colin 2014 Santenay 1er cru ‘La Comme’: bright ruby colour, translucent core. Initially, very tight, restrained nose, not giving up much fruit. Over time though, started to open slowly with stemmy, bitter spice notes. Don’t know for certain but feel probably some whole cluster going on here. Fruit always a little holding back. On the palate though this was terrific, really focused, super fresh, sappy and direct with a mineral/limestone edge and a rather big tannic structure. Very nice wine but will leave my next bottle for at least 5+ years to let that structure settle down. Lets see if the fruit ever emerges though, food is a must for this wine.
Overall, very interesting educational tasting. Feel like we all learnt something and had a great time. Consensus was serving ‘blind’ really helped focus attention on the wine in the glass and remove a priori expectations. We’ll certainly be repeating the experience again!
