Does Texier suck?

At a blind tasting of 2010 Northern Rhone, a Texier C-R, the most expensive wine at the table, finished last of 8 bottles. Last year at a similar blind tasting I was at, the Texier finished last on my sheet and in the bottom 1 or 2 of 8 (dont remember if it was dead last). I’ve tasted nearly every wine in the portfolio at some point or another; some blind, some not blind, and I’ve found that the wines are inconsistent at best, bad at worst. Other than from the usual small crew who have never met a Dressner import that wasn’t “pure and elegant with soaring aromatics”, the CT reviews are mixed. If there was another negociant making a bajillion different bottlings, many not estate, that were often priced at the high-end of their appellation, they’d be a board punching-bag. What gives here?

Texier C-R (I’m assuming Cote-Rotie) is certainly not the highest priced C-R around or anywhere near “priced at the high-end of their appellation”.

Some of Eric’s wines are exciting. Others, not so much. Many do better with food. The wines are usually distinctive and carefully made. Mr. Texier’s approach to winemaking is riskier than if his priorities included larger production and flavor consistency. Eric asserts that he tries, to the extent possible, to let the wines make themselves. The results are subsequently variable and may not be to your taste, or even a majority of tastes. I admire his insightfulness, experience, risk-taking and overall approach which likey adds a certain bias to my tasting impressions.

There’re lots of Northern Rhone options if his style doesn’t suit.

RT

No.

David, what do you think of the 2007 vintage in Oregon?

When did you stop beating your wife?

Some of us liked the Cote Rotie last night, David – Greg dal Piaz and I, for example. It was definitely less appealing now than some of the other wines, but I thought it was just in a very traditional style and was closed compared to some of the fruit-forward wines there (Graillot, St. Cosme, Dard & Ribo and Barou). I also thought it opened up.

You gave the Paris Cornas Granit 60 only a middling score, which I thought was the other most serious and traditionally made – and backward – wine. So maybe you’re just seduced by easy fruit.

Overall, the wines changed so much as they opened up (I wish now they’d been decanted much earlier) and the tannins caused such palate fatique that I found it hard to get a confident read on the wines.

As for his other wines, I’ve tasted and bought his Brézème and St.-Julien-en-St.-Alban but haven’t had them with age. They seem like very old-styled, backward wines with a lot of potential.

I loved his 09 Seguret and drank my way through a number of bottles. I’m kicking myself for not having loaded up on that. The St. Gervais has thrilled me less.

I haven’t had his 99 Hermitage, which was declassified Chave wine, in several years. It was a bit thin for my tastes, but that’s exactly my reaction to Chave much of time. So I can’t fault Texier there. I think that’s a matter of preference.

To be fair, those 2007’s were a really tough slog when first released.

David, I’m not a fan. Last time I posted a negative note which is some years ago, I got a heated email from Eric.

John, I’ve heard that before. Is there any proof that '99 was declassified Chave?

Well, I don’t score for potential since I’m too young to have a damn clue what a wine will age into. My notes for the Granit 60 say “loads of tannin” and “needs age”, so, agreed on that, as far as that goes (e.g. not very far). That’s very different than the flat, uninteresting Texier.

My point is that Texier is held up as something special when, manifestly, it’s not - it’s just like all the other Rhone producers, at least insofar as the wine tastes, especially when separated from the label on the front (or on the back). I’m sure there are good Texier bottles - I’ve had a few - but the evidence for Texier being a “star” producer (whatever that means) is pretty thin. In a reasonably well curated selection, they don’t stick out (except, perhaps, when ranked 8th out of 8 blind )

I love the statement, “the wine needs food”. Kinda like “she’s got a great personality”.

Were there any Texier whites?

I always thought they were his best wines.

No.

Though there are strengths and weaknesses across his wines. I haven’t bought the Cote Rotie for many years so I can’t comment on recent vintages (though it’s certainly less expensive than most and I recall liking the '00). I usually go for the Brezeme, Seguret, St. Julien Alban and white Chateauneuf.

Cute, but this makes no sense to me. Tasting wine is all about context IMO. Sometimes having a wine with food vs. tasting it with 20 other wines at a walk around tasting can make all the difference, or vice-versa. There are definitely wines that are ‘not fun’ to drink without food that are still really great and enjoyable wines.

As others have referred to the ‘traditional’ style, IIRC he uses a lot of big vats and neutral oak vs new barrique. It’s been a while, but in the past I’ve always found the wines rustic but fruit-dominated nonetheless. Different strokes, and depending on your lineup I could see a Texier wine as an ‘outlier’ in a grouping.

Well, I think Texier is just about the most exciting producer in the Rhone right now. I do not find that they “need food,” but I certainly agree that they, like anything else, are better enjoyed paired with nothing but a meal than with 8 other wines in competition with each other. It is fair to call the style “pure and elegant” but that’s not because it is a Dressner import. If you have an issue with the textbook semi-carbonic natural wine style that accounts for a fair number of the wines in the Dressner portfolio, that is emphatically not what Texier is doing. And it is utterly ridiculous to tar Texier with the label of “negociant making a bajillion different bottlings” as if he is not farming his plots and is just indiscriminately buying grapes or finished wine as such negociants tend to do. The man is clearly obsessed with finding special pieces of land with top-notch plant material. Ordinarily one might say something along the lines of “the style isn’t for everyone,” except that they’re not stylized at all. Most of them just make me figure that if you don’t like it, you don’t like Rhone syrah.

YES! Please save his wines for those of use who like plonk.

Who are your Rhone standouts?

As you remember, the scores were random and so bunched up that we were laughing at the scores were being read off and there was almost difference between #2 and #8. Moreover, #1 was the Barou St. Joseph, a delicious, chuggable, fruity wine that is nothing like Cote Rotie or Cornas.

FWIW, not the Texier, which was the low outlier. The bunching started at the tie for 6th. Agreed that the fruity accessible wine will show better in a blind tasting of 2010s and our results bore it out.

Texier wines have always been balanced fruit with loads of earth the few I’ve had over the years. Always considered them transparent expressions of the appellation on the label.