TN: Rhone Dinner with Sir Charles Redux

Once again our moderator extraordinaire found himself in the Bay Area, another excuse for some wine debauchery. Six of us met at Rich Table in San Francisco. After another 2 or three times, Charlie may learn that it gets cold in San Francisco most summer evenings; fortunately the wines warmed us just fine:

1985 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (6/14/2018)
Corked, but still shows pure sweet fruit very burg like. NR (flawed)

1983 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (6/14/2018)
Medium light body, dusty fruit on the nose, missing the savory truffle notes I associate with older Chave; very pure, burgundy weight fruit, faded with age but delicious nevertheless, some air time definitely brings out more structure and a bit more complexity, but this is at the end of its life. Sacrilege to say, but I think most Rhones are not capable of lasting 30+ years, better at the 15-20 year mark where they have a little more stuffing left. (92 pts.)

1994 Noël Verset Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (6/14/2018)
Medium light body, amazing baking spice nose, beautiful medium cherry, with dark raspberry/strawberry notes woven in, fabulous fine structure, good acidity, simply ethereal. (96 pts.)

2004 Thierry Allemand Cornas Sans Soufre - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (6/14/2018)
Fairly dark, not quite opaque; amazing nose: floral, mint, blueberry, pine forest, then fabulous dark fruit with a purity of essence in the form of a slight blueberry/raspberry sweetness, excellent fine structure, good but not dominant acidity, just so much creamy intensity, pure and vibrant. (96 pts.)

1996 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (6/14/2018)
Wow. Excellent dark fruit, great structure and balance, excellent acidity, quite youthful, pure and tasty. (94 pts.)

2013 MacDonald Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville (6/14/2018)
Some sweet oak on the nose, then deep, sweet, rich fruit, good acidity, nice medium structure. Very young, would like to come back to this in 10-15 years. (93 pts.)

After dinner we headed over to a new wine bar called High Treason to meet up with a few other folks and drink a few more bottles:

2006 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru (6/14/2018)
Excellent depth and intensity, some warmth of the vintage, but good balance, and quite tasty. (92 pts.)

2006 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair Vosne-Romanée La Colombiere - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée (6/14/2018)
Quite nice darker fruit, good fine structure, with a silkiness and creaminess on the palate. If I didn’t know what this was, I might have guessed a Morey wine, with its somewhat darker profile. Tasty and enjoyable. (91 pts.)

2010 Domaine Bruno Clair Chambolle-Musigny Les Véroilles - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny (6/14/2018)
Medium deep strawberry red in color, this is all about the lightly spiced strawberry/raspberry flavors, hint of tart acidity, with a lush higher toned sweetness coming through on the finish. Elegant, lush, wide open for drinking. I don’t know how much better this will get, it’s pretty approachable right now. (90 pts.)

2004 Clos Rougeard (Foucault) Saumur-Champigny Les Poyeux - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur-Champigny (6/14/2018)
Relatively light nose, not showing the typical Rougeard perfume; great intensity on the palate, with medium red fruit, spice, raspberry undertones, excellent fine structure. Amazing combination of depth, intensity, and elegance. Fabulous. (94 pts.)

2011 Marcel Juge Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (6/14/2018)
The nose, OMG, the nose, so complex, a melange of spice and earth, one of those wines you can just sit there and smell without feeling any need to taste it. But taste you must, and disappoint it does not: fabulous dark, complex fruit, great intensity with blackberry and pomegranate notes, excellent acidity, has subtle power with amazing elegance for such a young wine. One of the best Syrahs I’ve ever had. And such an amazing, complex nose. (97 pts.) Thanks again to Matt Latuchie, who happened to be in town on business, and brought this.

Another excellent adventure in the Bay Area. The beef tartare at Rich Table was an A+ dish and worked so well with the wines.

Thanks Alan for bringing the drool worthy 04 Allemand SS. Such an intensely pure wine. To me the wine of the night.

I was surprised at how bright the Bruno Clair showed. Super approachable and juicy.

More detailed notes later on!

Likewise; very grateful to you Alan for generously supplying my first sans soufre experience. What an amazing brightness and purity of fruit, even after all these years

That and Juge are such terrifying things to get introduced to, seeing as they’re basically unobtanium these days, but I guess that’s what older wine buddies are for :wink:

Also Charlie we have to bring you to Heirloom Cafe and The Morris one of these days

You guys are my idols.

Nice notes Alan. Allemand 04’s are drinking incredibly well now. Did you guys simply pop and pour most of the bottles, including the MacDonald? That’s cool the bar allowed you to bring your own wine.

We had dinner with Louis-Michel here in Hong Kong a few weeks ago and we discussed the 06 vintage which is generally where he really got going. The Clos du Chateau and Colombiere are both excellent from that year.

One of the guys we were meeting there is an investor at the bar, so they regularly do dinners there.

re: 06 LB, totally agree.

I infer that all of the wines consumed at High Treason were brought by the group. What is their wine list like? Big btg offering? Old & Rare?

Dan Kravitz

and he’s also a wineberserker board member who loves port…LOVES… flirtysmile

So how is it a no-SO2 wine is comparable with, and surpasses, those not making such a claim?

SO2 is added to help prevent oxidation and suppress spoilage organisms. How do you do this without SO2? Do you even need to? Why are the best producers (and the rest of us) compelled to vinify by the books, but a few not?

IMO the clue is that Allemand makes other wines with SO2

I’ve been following all of these N. Rhône threads with envy. Charlie and gang, if you guys ever make it to Boston, let’s put something together. Juge, Verset, whatever…

94 Verset is drinking amazing right now! Who brought the Macdonald? :astonished: I would guess it showed sweet because of the others at the table…maybe not the time to drop in that one? Been itchin to try one though!

I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking. There are plenty of wines out there with no SO2 at bottling (some even no SO2 ever)

Didn’t really take a look other than some more hip options on the cabinets.

I’ve been following all of these N. Rhône threads with envy. Charlie and gang, if you guys ever make it to Boston, let’s put something together. Juge, Verset, whatever…

Sounds great!

94 Verset is drinking amazing right now! Who brought the Macdonald? > :astonished: > I would guess it showed sweet because of the others at the table…maybe not the time to drop in that one? Been itchin to try one though!

Someone offered, a couple of us have never tried it so we said ok. I thought it was made in the same vein as other well done stylized napa cabs - Realm/Maybach/Schrader/Harlan etc.

I guess the '94 Verset is the exception that proves the rule but I imagine there are several other N Rhone producers whose wines are not just capable of lasting but keep improving well into their 20s. Any thoughts beyond the obvious (Verset, Jamet, Gentaz, Juge, maybe Levet)?

I may take you up on that sometime :slight_smile:

Yao. We had a dinner early May and a good friend brought a 95 Rostaing Cote Blonde that most of us thought was over the hill. I don’t know the reason for this as it was an ex-cellar bottle in good condition. But that seems to be the exception as many of the better producers’ wines from around that vintage are pretty solid.

As the dust settles, 1994 looks like an underrated Northern Rhône vintage, especially in Cornas. It’s also one of the best vintages of Fonsalette Syrah that I’ve tasted.

Interesting how the 2006 Chablis are beginning to taste a bit more like Chablis. Dauvissat’s wines in particular seem much more “classic” now than they did a few years ago.

1994 in Chateauneuf as well as Fonsalette Syrah. IMO, most Northern 1994s were better years ago and Southern many, many years ago. I don’t have any of mine left except a lone bottle of Chave.

That Verset, in particular, was always so well balanced and almost delicate for a Verset, especially compared with 1995, 1998 and 1999.

On Northern Rhône wines in general, I think many can last beyond that 10-20 year peak window, but are they really better? Personally, I don’t think so, but there are always exceptions.

Glad to see you liked that 2004 Rougeard Poyeux. 2004 is a very good vintage for Rougeard (and Baudry) that is often overshadowed by 2005. Did you detect ladybugs?

I go to High Treason whenever I’m in SF. I like the guys who run it and they always have plenty of interesting stuff available.

At this point, all the remaining Gentaz bottles in the world are more of an intellectual exercise, they were all better years ago. I’m not sure what the point is of lasting 30+ years, to me the point is to age a wine to its plateau of harmony, then drink it. I’m not really a Juge fan, and I’d be especially careful with old bottles and I think Jamet is better at around 10-15 (this goes for Allemand as well). I think the vintages of Levet that last a long time may just stay blocky. The one that isn’t on your list, but should be, is Chave. Some vintages are seemingly immortal.