Recent Rhones (Paris Geynale, B20, Gonon, Sorrel, etc.)

WINE TALK
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  • 2012 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
    Nothing like my last experience with this wine. One of our group always accuses this wine of tasting like grenache. I thought this bottle did too. It was ripe, sappy, and really fruity. But there weren’t many actual syrah characteristics here: no spice, no smoke, no meat. The palate is a bit hollow and thins out on the back. (93 pts.)
  • 2005 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d’Ampuis - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    The nose has lots of bright fruit, and there isn’t much oak. It’s very aromatic, but it lacks the classic syrah flavours – this is more drive straight by the fruit than by olives, saline, or meat. The palate shows some moderate oak that needs to integrate, but it’s not over-the-top. There’s a good acidity here as well to balance the ripe fruit. Quite nice. (93 pts.)
  • 2014 Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet (Hervé Souhaut) La Souteronne - France, Rhône, Ardèche, Vin de Pays de l’Ardèche
    From magnum. The gamay aspect of this wine offends me much less than the stemmy ladybuggy greenness. There’s some white pepper here and red fruit, but it’s really that green stemminess that makes this wine so unpleasant. The palate is a little thin and just smacks you with acid. I really don’t get what the fuss is about this stuff. (93 pts.)
  • 2004 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
    Mildly corked. (93- pts.)
  • 2005 Marc Sorrel Hermitage Le Gréal - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
    This is ultimately going to become an incredible bottle of syrah. But it isn’t there yet. This was dark and dense, showing some blood and meat notes in combination with black fruit. The velvety texture amplifies the scale of this wine. There’s a lot of stuffing here, but it’s mostly all just covered by the tannic structure. Especially coming off the heels of a recently tasted 1998, I’m fairly confident this will follow a similar trajectory: we just need to wait some more. (93 pts.)
  • 2014 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
    From magnum. A good, not great Gonon. This has a bit of the hallmark white pepper on the nose, as well as a fruit profile that veers confidently towards the red part of the spectrum. Light on its feet with good acidity that drives this wine. It’s not the most complex nor concentrated, but delivers a really nice, if relatively light, expression of syrah. (93 pts.)
  • 2012 Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas La Geynale - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
    From magnum. I liked this the least of the three vintages of this wine that we tasted (the others being 13 and 14). This is a riper and less structured wine, and shows much more polish than the other wines. This shows a lot of red fruit on both the nose and palate, and there are some spice notes here as well. It seems like there’s a bit of stemminess here as well, but it’s not overdone. Not as earthy or rustic as the younger vintages. (93 pts.)
  • 2013 Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas La Geynale - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
    From magnum. Initially, I felt that this seemed to be a little purply and shut down, but having this open for a while promptly changed that assessment. This has a slightly darker profile than the 2012, with fruit that is still mostly red but tinged a little with black. This too doesn’t display too much rusticity; it’s a fairly clean and clinical execution of Cornas, but there’s certainly a lot of good stuff underneath the structure. I think this will be the best of the trilogy we had tonight, but for current consumption, I’d put this slightly below the 2014. (93 pts.)
  • 2014 Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas La Geynale - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
    From magnum. Perhaps the most accessible and open-knit of the Geynale threesome that we had today. Like the 2013, this had a tinge of darker fruit to the red here, and I thought that I detected a little bit of earthiness as well. It’s a fairly dense wine on the palate as well, and I thought it a little more expressive than the 2013. It’s definitely the wine for drinking now, but I’m not sure it has quite the same amount of oomph as its older sibling for the longer term. That polish which I’ve criticized in the Paris wines before is here, but it’s more attenuated in comparison to the older vintages. (93 pts.)
  • 2008 Sine Qua Non Syrah B 20 - USA, California, Central Coast
    Served double blind. Black cherry, vanilla, lots of spices. Identifiable as some sort of modernist new world wine, and I guessed syrah mostly on the hint of pepper. But really, this is varietally nondescript and could have been anything made with a lot of expensive new oak. Heady and boozy, this is classic dump bucket material. I guessed some sort of Central Coast crap. (93 pts.)
  • 2000 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    VT is one of the few CdP producers that I think are worth drinking. This bottle is no exception. There’s a very nice aromatic nose, with good red fruit and a gentle amount of dirt, without any funkiness at all. The palate is mostly resolved, and shows the same characteristics. The red fruit here is sweet and there’s a slight liqueur-like aspect to it. Good restraint here, with alcohol levels in check. (93 pts.)
  • 2001 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    This is a pretty unbalanced wine at this point, showing a lot of heat on the back end. The fruit is prominent on the attack, but decrescendos into an absolutely hollow midpalate. This finishes bitter. I will preempt any comments about heat damage by saying that there are no discernible attributes here that would make me think that this bottle had experienced it. It’s a fraying wine that was probably never good in its youth and is now in its twilight. I won’t miss it. (93 pts.)
  • 2007 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    Another chance to try a 2007 CdP yields another failed wine. This is a ripe, ripe wine with fruit that has mostly dried out already, leaving some sort of sweetness coupled with an unpleasant roasted flavour (not unlike Starbucks coffee) and a bitter, alcoholic finish. Sell these if you’re the unlucky owner of any; there’s probably a greater fool who will buy them. (93 pts.)
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Thought the Souhat was spicy and bqeautiful. Was also impressed by the Gonon blanc (not mentioned above) it seemed to be in a nice spot.

Sorrel was great, but the 13 Paris was my favorite of the evening. 2013 Northern Rhône continues to impress.

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[beatoff.gif]

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we had an 04 mon Auieul that sounded like yours. i don’t get the fuss…

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Do you actually read any of his notes, or do you only jump into these threads to aim pejoratives at Adrian?

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Interesting thoughts on the '14 Gonon. I had it on release and liked it a lot - though I’m more a fan of the leanness in '14 than you are, I think. (14 Jamet C-R is on deck tonight for a fantasy baseball draft.)

I think it needs a bit of time and I’m willing to wait several years to let it round out. Some of the other Rhones I’ve had from leaner vintages (e.g. 92 Albert Belle Crozes, 92 Barge, or the 94 Allemand/Trollat) all give me the impression that it’ll be excellent if we’re patient. I’ll trust the producer over the vintage (as I’m doing with the '14 Jamet and Champets). We can check in on some of my bottles in a decade or so.

Also, I would have liked to seen your reaction to that SQN.

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Had a 13 Jamet last week that was INSANE after 5 hours of air. Opened at 5:15pm. Initially really weedy and thin. Double decanted it, we drank about 30% of the bottle, corked it back up and left for dinner. Opened the remaining bottle around 10:45. The moment it hit the glass it was a monster bouquet of violet, sweet black fruit and cracked pepper. Had about a 1/3rd of the bottle left and tried it at 12pm the next day, still really expressive (about 80% of the previous night) on the nose and nice on the palate.

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decant that Jamet for 6 hours.

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Thanks, Charlie - very useful to know.

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Forgetting about decanting or not, I’m wondering how long the dinner/tasting was and how long you were able to sit with each of these wines? My guess is that most ‘changed dramatically’ in glass over a period of time - but if not given that time, aren’t you ‘short changing’ the wine a bit? Just curious . . .

Cheers.

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Nope, he’s just mad because SQN was slammed…

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probably can be said for any tasting or wine drank early on when first opened. But most wine dinners like this last 3-4 hours, so I think that’s a decent amount of air.

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Charlie pretty much nailed the description. It’s not necessarily the best way to review the wines; some of them get a first pass and then are ignored for the rest of the dinner. I’m definitely aware there’s a risk of missing out on a wine getting better with air or time. But it could get worse too.

Notes can only capture a snapshot; there are always too many variables that can change inbetween anyway. It’s an inevitable limitation.

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Oh I read the notes, but then noticed the negative ones getting the same “93 points” treatment. It gets old and I think Adrian has made his point long ago. It’s time to move on.
His palate is exquisite and generally spot-on, but I get tired of his political commentary.

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Agreed with both Charlie’s and Adrian’s points - it’s just a ‘bummer’ that these wines oftentimes get evaluated way too quickly . . . which is why I’m never a fan of having too many wines at a dinner like this - or too few glasses in which to let them sit and evolve over time.

Cheers!

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that’s where you’re wrong. It clearly still has relevance and the point hasn’t really been made when your first response is this: [beatoff.gif]

just sayin

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07 Pegau wouldn’t make me a fan of the vintage either, though it isn’t overwrought like the Cambie darlings. I don’t think the fruit is dried out, or at any rate wasn’t when I tried it last year. But it was oddly dumb at the same time that it was ripe (an odd contradiction, I know, but the 07s have aged very awkwardly). With an 11 year old CdP, thinking that this will never come into shape isn’t a bad guess–though it may not be a sure thing that it won’t.

Don’t get me wrong. I know the wine has its defenders. Big a Pegau slut as I am, I am not one of them.

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This. You’d think maybe he’d see that a couple people who might otherwise engage in responding feel this way, and realize they probably represent a lot more people who don’t even bother to respond. But if the point of participating in a wine board, and taking the time to post detailed notes is to annoy people, instead of engage, I guess I’ve missed the tutorial.

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Thanks, Adrian. I’ve been sitting on these vintages of Paris, but this reminds me that it’s a good idea to try them young, too.

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If you want his “true” point rating, just click through to Cellar Tracker. I think it’s great and his points are really on a 7 point likert scale anyway. Giving out precise points is pointless because it implies a level of precision that is impossible.

I like that white Gonon more than you and I find myself more interested in Northern Rhône whites lately, but agree about the red. I quite like it, but it generally lacks the extra gear for special, IMO. Given the style of wine that people claim to like, I’m not sure why Texier* wines don’t get more buzz here. Did ZBD really have that much influence? SQN are terrible and am curious about that Geynale, but not sure whether I need more syrah in my cellar given our drinking habits.


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  • I am absolutely not impartial or unbiased about these wines for lots of reasons.