TN: 2007 Delas Freres Côtes du Rhône Saint Esprit

I got this wine for $8.95. Excellent wine at an excellent price point. Super nose on the wine with lots of red and blue berries, and a healthy dose of dried parsley.

I posted a positive note on this in June, and it engendered a lot of different opinions:

It seems there may be a lot of bottle variation with this. I have had 6 or 7 bottles from the case I bought, and while some were better than others none of them were bad. Since June I have also seen the wine packaged with two different labels and bottle styles.

Thanks for the link Brad, somehow I missed all the brouhaha. My guess is different batches of wine with different results. But, I’ll definitely lay low as I don’t want to bring upon me the wrath of Posner! [pillow-fight.gif] [stirthepothal.gif]

I had this wine recently. I thought it was just ‘ok’ (82pts). To me it just came across as grape juice with alcohol and I didn’t get much else out of it. There’s a lot of other 07 CdRs out there which are WAY better and only $3 or $4 more expensive.

Great wine at a great price.

Opened two bottles last week for some folks and everyone thought it very good. For nine bucks what’s not to like?

Otto,

No wrath.

Production was probably 100,000 cases. The bottles I opened, which came from MMD, the licensed importer, were dreadful.

As you can see, I was not the only one with those harsh remarks.

We all have different experiences with the same wine.

Just look at Sierra Carche, a horrific wine, that Mrs. Parker scored 93 points.

This situation is more obvious, and I hate to say it, but more acceptable. With this kind of production and knowing the sourcing of the fruit, variation, I suppose comes with the territory. Nevertheless, I did not wish that was the case.

Incidentally, we had no complaints from our customers, who paid $8/btl, but no reorders that I recall either.

I gotta agree with Posner. I had this twice and it was not good. Stupid of me to buy it on two different occasions: it was identically bad both times. There must be some big bottle variation going on with this one.

Had once, nothing special for me, could be the 3/1 syrah tilt but the 2007 Pesquie Terrases was miles better for me at about the same price. The 2007 Vielle Ferme was even a bit better at <$7. The 2007 Mas de Guiot Syrah 60%/Grenache 40% is much better and about $8.

Hi forumites. I just posted this TN over on Garrs forum.

The thread from Tim the other day and the Delas tasting over on WineBeserkers.com intrigued me so I picked up a bottle of the `07 Saint-Esprit. Reading all the notes, it is pretty obvious that there is some vaste bottle variation here.

WTN: `07 Delas Freres Cotes du Rhone Saint-Esprit.

Not a bad price here, $18 Cdn. Good quality cork, opened half hour and consumed over two days. Slightly better on day 2, less astringent on the finish.

Color is light garnet with purple tinges on rim. Other TNs elsewhere speak of a much darker wine than mine.

Nose is baked cherry pie with some raspberry as it airs. Not all that special for me.

On the palate, dry, cherry, raspberry. Highish acidity, no big structure here. Soft tannins, tad earthy but some bitterness on the finish. Pretty average wine I`d say, has to be better out there for the price. Tims bottle was better than this I think.
Day 2, hint of cocoa, more savoury but not too pleasant a drink. Most thoughts elsewhere on the other forum seem to echo my feeling?