Boy, were we in for a surprise last night when my monthly blind tasting group sampled '15 Northern Rhones. I’ve never encountered young Rhones like this – so fruit-forward, and with so little apparent structure. “If you’d told me these were California syrahs, I’d have believed you,” said one person who tastes very widely across different categories of wine. And he wasn’t thinking Anderson Valley.
Key take-aways:
1. Among the people in the group who I take most seriously, there was amazement at the ripeness and fruitiness. Not cooked, but definitely in the jammy direction. Blackberry and ripe black cherry fruit flavors predominated, not the plums or blueberries I’d expect. A lot of puzzled looks were exchanged. WTF?
2. I’ve been tasting Northern Rhones on release since the ’83 vintage and I can’t recall an array remotely like this. (I didn’t taste the ‘03s young, however.) The only wines I can think of that can resemble these are some young Graillot Crozes, but those typically have more freshness, more zip.
3. These really were yummy last night. Don’t get me wrong. But I have serious doubts about their aging potential.
4. On the whole, I think I’d rather buy the ’15 Copain Les Voisins syrah I tasted at the winery last month, which had a better balance of fruit and structure than these.
Some footnotes/qualifications/caveats:
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With the exception of the Barruol-Lynch, these are all established traditional producers with good reputations.
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Sometimes structure hides out and only emerges later, so it’s conceivable we were fooled by the fruit. But I don’t think so.
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The wines were decanted into serving bottles about an hour ahead of the tasting, and sampled over an hour and a half or more. I’ll sample the leftovers again this evening.
Here’s my ranking in ascending order. There was little consensus in the group’s ranking, so the group scores are meaningless.
Hervé Souhaut – St. Joseph - Les Cessieux: Weedy on the nose, like the freshly broken stalk of a large thistle. (This I like.) Some black cherries, but generally a bit tighter than the others. That would have been a plus, but in the mouth this seemed diffuse, unfocused, to me. There’s tannin, but it seems a bit disjointed. A bit hot on the finish with a strand of hard tannins. Where’s the acid? $53
My rank/score: 8th/83 points
Dard & Ribo – Crozes-Hermitage: Brighter, redder fruit than the others, in a good way. A bit of reduction on the nose. Very drinkable – very fruity. This was particularly Graillot-like, though at a higher price point.
My rank/score: 7th/87 points: Yummy but do I want to pay $45 for current pleasure?
Barruol-Lynch – Crozes-Hermitage: Luscious ripe black cherry jam on the nose. I want to spread this on peanut butter! Some oak showing, too. In the mouth, blackberry and black cherry jam with a good whack of new oak. Yummy, but doesn’t seem like a serious wine. On my third or fourth pass through this, it cried out “shiraz!” and I started to wonder if the person who arranged the line-up had slipped in an Aussie ringer. Shiraz blackberry fruit at the back, and a bit of heat. I don’t understand why Kermit Lynch is involved in producing this kind of wine. Nice if you liked well-balanced, restrained Australian shiraz. $35
My rank/score: 6th/87 points
Domaine Faury – Cote Rotie: Ripe black cherry nose, but with a nice contrasting tartness. Chewy in the mouth – more grip than most of these. Still lots of ripe dark fruit. Approachable now. At first this reminded me of young St. Josephs I drank in the 80s from people like Trollat – grapiness combined with a healthy measure of soft tannins. With more time in the glass, this seemed more serious, though the acid still seemed a little lacking. No signs of new oak, though it sees some. $60
My rank/score: 5th/89 points, but retasting after the rankings, I gave it 91, which would have put it in second place behind the Paris Cornas 60.
Gilles Barges - St. Joseph: More reduction on the nose than the others. Lots of fruit, but good tannin and acid. I think some of the tartness may have been from sulfur. (One person in the group thought this wine suffered from too little added sulfur and that the reduction was from the wine itself rather than sulfur additions.) More restrained in the mouth. $25
My rank/score: 4th/89+ points
Balthazar - Cornas - Sans souffre: Keeping up with the Allemands! A lot of reduction at first. In the mouth, this was denser and chewier and less fruity than most. “It doesn’t hand over the goods,” I wrote. I guess that’s why I liked it in this ready-for-business line-up. $60
My rank/score: 3rd/90 points
Dom. Faury – St. Joseph - Vieille Vignes: Rich black cherry and blackberry on the nose and a trace of sulfur. Rich, ripe, sweet, big, but with good structure. A tad hot, but with nice sweetness fruit on the finish. My descriptors don’t capture what I liked about the wine – that it seemed to have more backbone than most. $30
My rank/score: 2nd/90+ points
Vincent Paris - Cornas - Granit 60: I’ve been more impressed with Paris’s wines in recent years than I was in the 2000s. His ’15 St. Joseph Les Cotes is lovely and fresh. Here there’s a slight reduction on the nose, and then something pleasantly earthy. Great depth, great grip. Tannic, some alcohol, and with a nice sweetness (not candiedness). This just seemed like a more serious wine than most, but I still had doubts about its aging potential. $50
My rank/score: 1st/92 points
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