TN: 2009 syrahs - Copain Voisins beats out Gonon (!)

There – I have your attention.

Indeed, the Copain Les Voisins – a mid-priced blend I bought for $34 at the winery – narrowly edged out Gonon’s St. Joseph for the group’s first place. I ranked the Gonon first, but only by a hair over the Copain, which really held its own over several days.

That’s why you taste blind!

We hit on this tasting theme somewhat by chance. I’d bought some California syrahs for a tasting that never came together, and had bought others for my cellar. And we’d tasted 2009 Northern Rhones back in 2011, and some of us had bought ‘09s then. So we decided to taste them side by side, throwing in a South African syrah that had showed very well young. Since it was a warm year in the Rhone, it seemed like a particularly good vintage to compare regions.

Note that the Californians came from three widely separated spots: in Mendocino County, the Sierra Foothills and Santa Barbara County. We stuck with the “lesser” Rhone appellations, in part because I think Hermitage or Cote Rotie might have stuck out in this group.

There were some surprises:

• The New World wines did not shout out their origins.
• With one exception, the Rhones were clean.
• The remains of all eight wines (a quarter to a third of a bottle) held up remarkably well in the refrigerator over several days, and many improved. They still tasted good three and sometimes four days later, and none crashed or oxidized, although some VA showed up on the Clos Saron, where they use little sulfur.
• There was very little reduction showing on the noses, save for the South African.

Here they are in the group’s order of preference:

Copain - Les Voisins (Yorkville Highlands)
Group rank/my rank: 1/2
91 points on day 1 for me, just a shade behind the Gonon for my palate.
A blend from several vineyards in Mendocino County. 13.9%
Bravo, Wells Guthrie! Ripe but muted fruit at first. By day 3, the nose was filled with violets. In the mouth, it’s ripe, with oodles of syrah plums and blueberries but ample silky tannins to keep the fruit in check. This is exquisitely balanced, without any trace of candied New World fruit.
This held up extremely well, even on day 4, though by day 2 the Gonon had pulled ahead substantially, I thought. I’m very happy to own more of this.

Pierre Gonon – St. Joseph
Group/my rank: 2/1
91+ points on day 1 and a couple more a day or two later.
As much as I like to be contrarian, you can pretty much believe the hype about Gonon. As my friend Claude Kolm told me back in 2011, when he recommended I buy this, “This is the real thing” – real, old-style Northern Rhone syrah.
At the $31.50 we paid for this in 2011, this was spectacular value. At $85 or more for the 2015, not so much.
Some reduction on the nose at first, then sour cherries. In the mouth, it’s taut, with bright reddish fruits and a good dose of acid. It seemed like it needed some air or time to flesh out and, indeed, on days 2 and 3, it was even better. Lots of fruit lurking behind a high-tension structure of acid and tannin. Very youthful but a wonderful wine. Wish I’d bought more in 2011.
I ranked it first in 2011 and the group put it 3rd, so a consistent favorite.

Ojai Vineyard - White Hawk Vineyard (Santa Barbara County)
Group: tied 3/4; my 3
89 points for me.
Ripe but muted fruit on day 1. Ripe, ripe blackberry in the mouth, and some black cherry. Some heat, but balanced (marked at 14.5%). “Chuggable,” I wrote. Grapy on day 2. Plums dominate by day 3. Sweet and ripe on the finish. Not sure why I put this so high, now that I read my notes, and I didn’t revisit this as much as the others.

Dom. de Fauterie (Sylvain Bernard) – Cornas
Group: tied 3/4; my 5
88 points on day 1, inching up to 90 or 91 over the next several days.
“From vines averaging 80 years of age in the vineyard called la Barjasse, the upper part on granite, the lower on silt and stones, partly destemmed, minimal sulfur.” – Chambers Street
Intensely grapy at first – like Welch’s juice. Then the sweat emerged. Lots of it. Saddle me up a horse and summon Mr. Alfert!
This shows the vintage: It’s a big wine and the alcohol peaks out at points, but the fruit concentration, tannin and acid are all in sync so it’s utterly balanced. Quite tannic on the finish, with substantial acid, and a trace of heat. This didn’t change much over the next two days.
Tied with the Gonon for 3rd place in our 2011 tasting of ‘09s. My 5th then, so both I and the group were consistent on this one. Glad I have some.

Clos Saron - Heart of Stone (Sierra Foothills)
Group/my rank: 5/8.
80 points on day 1; 84 on day 3.
The last vintage of this wine, as frosts damaged the vines the following winter. Ungrafted vines in a vineyard on granite at 2,300 feet owned by Renaissance Winery, where Clos Saron winemaker Gideon Bienstock formerly worked.
Grapes pressed by foot, all the stems included, indigenous yeasts, only very low level levels of sulfur added. Wines are not racked until they are bottled. 10% viognier, according to one set of notes I found on the web. 13.8%
Ripe black cherry on the nose and what seemed like a bit of new oak, though that seems unlikely.
Quite tannic and with less fruit than most. (There was far more sediment in this than the others, and some of that made it into the pouring bottle, which may explain the astringency.) The alcohol shows at points, even though it’s not that high. Overall, fairly disjointed, with a sweet flavor at the back. Showed some VA on day 3.
Vincent Paris – Cornas – La Geynale
Group: tied 6/7; my 4
88+ points on day 1; more like 91 on day 3.
This is a vineyard formerly owned by Paris’s uncle, Robert Michel, who retired in 2006. Rhone expert John Livingstone-Learmonth and others bought this and some other of Michel’s plots, including Geynale, and have a 40-year agreement with Paris to make the wine.
Black cherry and plum are the fruits on the nose – on the darker, riper end of the scale. In the mouth, this is chewy and tannic, with good ripe but not overripe fruit. Seems a tad less complex than some on day 1, but seems like it’s just a big wine that needs time. This improved substantially over the next several days. On day 2 some stemmy or weedy notes came up, which I liked, and there a more transparent, pure Northern Rhone syrah fruit came to the fore on day 3.

The Three Foxes - Castillo (Swartland, South Africa)
Group: tied 6/7; my 6. 87 on day 1; 90-ish on day 3
A winery co-owned by Chris Mullineux of Mullineux Family Wines and Pascal Schildt, a French-born winemaker and importer. Both the Three Foxes and Mullineux wines were a revelation when I first tasted them at a dinner and Pascal and Chris ran in January 2014, as were other SA producers’ wines they included. It opened my eyes to a new generation of winemaking in South Africa that’s quite exciting.
They didn’t serve this wine but I found it on the list at Hearth a week or two later and it was a perfect match for a hearty meal in the middle of a blizzard – after a lengthy decant. It appeared then to be just entering a long drinking window.
This didn’t show well at first. There were some sweet dark cherries, but also a trace of burnt rubber on the nose (as I recall, those are mercaptans, so a form of reduction). The nose was fairly tight. In the mouth, this was quite dense/extracted but also imprecise, and some of the burnt rubber persisted. It improved with air at the tasting, but was disappointing. On day 2, it seemed tastier and better balanced, and by day 4, the rubber had blown off. At that point, the wine was clean, with great tannin and depth of fruit. 87 on day 1; 90+ on day 4. I’ll hold my other two bottles and decant them for a long time before serving.
Texier – Brézème (regular bottling, not the Dom. de Pergaud “Vielle Serines”
Group/my rank: 8/7
81 points for me on day 1.
Ripe black cherry notes on the nose. In the mouth, this is tight, with less fruit than most. Quite tannic. I guessed the Texier based on the characteristically high acid. This seemed even less fleshy on day 2, but started to open up on day 3. Perhaps this needs more time, but I always find this bottling from Texier a bit disappointing. No regrets that this was my only bottle.
This ranked last in our 2011 tasting; I put it 6th. Jamie Goode on his WineAnorack.com blog gave his 94 points some years back.

These were served blindly with foods and sampled over about 90 minutes. Most were decanted into serving bottles about an hour ahead, except for the Paris, Gonon and Fauterie, which arrived late and were poured into the serving bottles very shortly before we began.

For clarity, my rankings were:

Pierre Gonon – St. Joseph
Copain - Les Voisins
Ojai Vineyard - White Hawk
Vincent Paris – Cornas – Les Geynales
Dom. de Fauterie (Sylvain Bernard) – Cornas
The Three Foxes
Texier – Brézème
Clos Saron - Heart of Stone

(Corrected spelling of La Geynale.)

Fun tasting!

Interesting range of wines. I think you known I am a Gonon acolyte, have lots of it, but 2009 is not my favorite of the pretty impressive run of 09-14 vintages. I’d probably put it last in that string, but still score it about where you do. Solid wine.

I would have expected a little more from the Paris Geynale. Did I understand your comments correctly that JLL is involved in that winery? I did not know that. I’m not a fan of the Paris 30 and 60, to glossy for me, but do like the Geynale vineyard and either no or limited de-stemmming. The wine often shows more traditionally, compared to the more modern 30 and 60.

I too have been underwhelmed by the 2009 Geynale - lacks focus, fruit on the edge of overripe, an oaky profile (though could be stems). However, the 2015 is fabulous.
Just saying that the 2009 was the only Voisins with substantial Halcon fruit . I think over 50%. Our crop levels dropped the following few years and little made it into the blend.

I don’t consider Paris modern, though perhaps a bit polished, but I always found Michel’s wines that way, too.

Here’s what Livingstone-Learmonth says on his blog about La Geynale:

Robert Michel retired after the 2006 vintage. His holdings were spread across a few young growers. The most notable transfer was the sale of 1.2 hectares on Reynards, Le Thezier and La Geynale to an Anglo-Scandinavian group of wine professionals and enthusiasts (including me). Vincent Paris will work these under a 40-year rental agreement. La Geynale [by which I think L-L means Michel’s] was a good, traditional Cornas that could live for 15+ years. Its fullness reflected the 1910 Syrah from a prime, southern slope in the heart of the appellation.

I haven’t tried Paris’s 2015 Cornases, but his '15 St. Joseph - Les Côtes is outstanding.

Interesting about the Halcon contribution! I was amazed how well the Voisins held its own against the French wines, even after several days, when candied fruit sometimes comes out in California syrah and pinot that doesn’t show that on day 1.

If the Voisins kicks French butt, I’d hate to think what the Brosseau would do!

Yea, an interesting tid-bit. Halcon produces killer fruit. Always liked that Copain bottling and what Paul does in his own right.

You kind of beat me to it here, Mikey D. I have been drinking the Copain syrahs since the 2003 vintage, and watched the evolution occur in 2006 that we have talked about before: dropping the southern vineyards, staying with cool climate locations, dialing back the oak (to near zero) and lowered alcohols. Stem inclusion did not change.

So, it’s not surprising to see Les Voisins do well. I don’t buy that wine, as I focus exclusively on the single vineyard plots, like Brosseau, Hawks Butte and Halcon (up to when Wells stopped making the site, which I hope will change again to seeing the wine come back to Copain). Further, 2009 was a ripe + year for the winery. The syrahs and PNs show higher finished alcs, resulting from the warmer year. So to see 13.9%, not surprising, but it should be told that the syrahs general run in the 12 and low 13%s as a rule.

John, thanks for sharing this tasting. I appreciate you took the time to write this up.

As Frank says, the Les Voisins can be quite a nice wine. I too buy mostly the single vineyards, but I always enjoy the Voisins when I have one. I do think it was fortuitous that the wines (Gonon in particular) were from 2009, a definite warmer year there, so not quite the contrast you might get in some cooler years.

After our Rhone/California taste-off earlier this year, it should be apparent that there are some outstanding California syrah sites (and we didn’t have all of them in that tasting, by any means).

I haven’t yet had a Paris Geynale from a recent vintage. 2007 and 2009 though, came across as unusually simple and primary wines, given the fruit source. I need to try a more recent version.

As I said in my notes, this Geynale leftovers improved substantially over the two successive days, gaining complexity.

Two footnotes:

1. I’d kept the remaining leftovers in the fridge for another week so I could use them in a stew. When I began cooking last night, I sampled each bottle before that wine into the pot to make sure nothing had gone off. It was like they were frozen in time. They had hardly changed, even 12 days after the tasting. They all tasted pretty good, except for the Clos Saron, which had just enough VA and a something faintly musty. But even it was good enough for stew.

2. I opened the '09 Copain - Les Voisins - Pinot Noir on Saturday night. It’s a nice wine but nowhere near the quality of the Voisins Syrah. Glad it’s the syrah I have more of.

This thread reminds me of newspaper articles wherein the headline is not written by the writer.

I remember having this Les Voisins on release and thinking it was the best young American Syrah I had ever tasted. I’d had lots of bigger and richer ones but nothing with its aromatics, balance and complexity. Sounds like it’s still doing well!