Tasted today out of curiosity after some chatter in the other Northern Rhone threads, had with a ribeye steak. Decanted ~1 hour (did not want to wait any longer for dinner) and drank over the course of another hour and half.
Definitely a bit of a modern/cleaner style of Cornas, with clean and pure purple/blue fruit (blueberries, blackberries) which I loved and some of that grapeyness that young Syrah can exhibit. Just a whiff of something animal/gamey akin to leather but not in a rustic way… clean, un-sweaty leather. Touch of dark earthiness, perhaps a bit of roasted cocoa nib? Well balanced juicy acidity and a stony mineral core adds pleasant interest, but unsurprisingly, this is definitely way too young and closed for me to get a good sense of the full experience of this wine. The tannins were fine-grained and pleasant, if abundant, and the fuzzy/velvety sensation lasted for what felt like a couple minutes on the tongue. Purple tongue staining and concentrated, but with its 13.5% ABV and juicy acidity, it really felt quite elegant.
I’m a fan and might try to grab a couple more if wine-finances allow. A quarter bottle survived the dinner and stashed in the fridge for tasting tomorrow!
Thanks for killing a baby! I’m not sure why it would come across as modern as it’s pretty classic in it’s making:
From JLL: “mainly 1976/78 Syrah from Chaillot, plus 1950s Syrah from Mazards, Saveaux, crop crushed, whole bunch fermentation, 3-4 week vinification, 1 or 2 pumping overs at the start and finish, manual cap punching, malo in cask, aged 70% 4-14 year 600-litre, 30% 400-litre oak casks 18 months, unfined, unfiltered”
Quick note: I don’t mean modern in the extracted, oaky, heavy sense (which I think comes to mind to a lot of people), but I mean it in the sense that it comes across very clean, both in fruit and in the lack of common old-school winemaking flaws like brett. Please don’t imagine that this is coming across like a goopy overripe Syrah because I wouldn’t want to slander this wine like that.
Yeah, if I had seen your tasting note I would’ve just bumped up your thread because we seem to be converging on the same point! The purity as you mentioned is really the aspect that impressed me about it.
Day 2: That fun juicy pure clean fruit has disappeared, the tannin shows no signs of letting up and a few new uninvited guests have shown up to the flavor party: a stemmy, brambly quality, a more prominent expression of the ripeness of the vintage, and a touch of something exotic, something akin to tangerine peel. Will be fantastic with age, I think, but if you’re drinking this young, I’d polish it off first day.
Maybe it’ll improve on the third day, but I have my doubts; I finished off my glass and said see you again in many years!
It was a bit interesting but it felt a lot more disjointed and all over the place. The components I noted each sort of stuck out on their own terms… I’m sure it’ll be fantastic once they integrated but for now, they were really distracting, especially without the fruit of the first day!
