TN: Blind tasting of mostly Northern Rhone

Flight 1

Some notes from a Northern Rhone tasting. This group meets monthly to do blind, themed tastings, this month it was my turn to organize. I had a couple of California Syrahs that I thought would be interesting to throw in as mystery wines. The Lagier Meredith was fairly obvious in its flight, though very enjoyable and “competed” very nicely. I personally could not pick out the Peay (mystery wine) in its flight, and guesses as to the mystery wine were all over the map. No clunkers, this was a very fun and enjoyable tasting.

2011 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (3/10/2019)
Nicely rich, deep fruit, some nice savory notes, hint of roasted mushroom, young and tasty. (92 pts.) My #2, group #3

2005 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (3/10/2019)
Dark, rich, deep red fruit, hint anise, excellent acidity, medium crunchy tannins, very young, fabulously rich and deep, perhaps not great complexity but tons of power and flavor. Needs another decade to even enter its prime drinking window. (94 pts.) My #1, group #2

2006 Saint-Cosme Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (3/10/2019)
Shows a bit of bricking, nice dark deep red fruit, just a hint of pickle note, good balance, nice but unexciting. (90 pts.) My #5, Group #5

2006 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (3/10/2019)
Good dark red fruit, hints of leather, touch more faded, seemingly showing more age than the 04 and 05 tasted alongside. (90 pts.) My #4, Group #4

2004 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (3/10/2019)
Nice medium deep, dark red fruit, more mellow and elegant than 2005 tasted alongside, bit softer, not as deep or rich, still youthful but more approachable, touch of complexity, some light chalky tannins. Still, very tasty. (91 pts.) My #3, group #1

Flight 2

2005 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (3/10/2019)
Very nice medium dark fruit, slight raspberry note, some fine chalky tannins, tasty, elegant, though plenty of stuffing. (92 pts.) My #3, group #2

2005 Robert Michel Cornas La Geynale - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (3/10/2019)
Quite nice deeper red/purple fruit, fairly tannic, not overly complex, bit undeveloped though not grapy. (91 pts.) My #5, group #3

2005 Peay Vineyards Syrah La Bruma - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (3/10/2019)
Wow, delicious, deep red fruit, some savory notes, excellent mouthwatering acidity, fine structure.

Revisit later same day: lightly savory nose, deep plum/raspberry fruit, excellent acidity, medium fine silky tannins, higher toned brighter red fruit, some nice development but many years left. (93 pts.) My #1, group #1

2005 Marc Sorrel Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (3/10/2019)
More elegant dark red fruit, slight savory notes, good acidity, moderate fine tannins, quite lovely. (92 pts.) My #2, group #5

2005 Michel & Stéphane Ogier Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (3/10/2019)
Nice deep red fruit, good acidity, somewhat simple and less complex but tasty. (91 pts.) My #4, group #4

Flight 3

2000 Clusel-Roch Côte-Rôtie Les Grandes Places - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (3/18/2019)
Gorgeous medium rich darker cherry and deep raspberry, hints of savory complexity, excellent acidity, really beautiful. (95 pts.) My #1, group #1

2001 Robert Michel Cornas La Geynale - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (3/18/2019)
Nicely rich, has a specific herb/spice streak I can’t identify exactly, good acidity, still moderately tannic. Quite nice. (93 pts.) My #3, group #4

1999 Lagier Meredith Syrah - USA, California, Napa Valley, Mt. Veeder (3/18/2019)
Beautifully rich, deeply flavored, excellent acidity, fine tannins, long finish, becomes a bit more tannic with air. Tasted in a blind flight of 4 older Northern Rhones, this stood slightly apart, more because of its purity of fruit and overall richness, and most probably that the Rhones use whole cluster fermenetation while this is destemmed. (93 pts.) My #4, group #3

2001 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (3/18/2019)
Lovely moderately dark fruit, slight raspberry note, excellent acidity, light tannins, more elegant though plenty of depth and flavor. (93 pts.) My #2, group #6

2001 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (3/18/2019)
Decent medium dark fruit, bit of a brighter strawberry note, strong, slightly tart mouthwatering acidity. (91 pts.) My #6, group #5

2000 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (3/18/2019)
Beautiful dark cherry/raspberry/strawberry fruit, slightly higher toned with subtle savory notes, excellent acidity, more feminine and elegant, lovely. (92 pts.) My #5, group #2

Nice lineup. Did anyone guess Peay as new world?

Destemming is a shame.

So is stemmy wine.

I was at the tasting and to me both the Peay and the LM stood out as new world. Deeper fruit, riper fruit and for my palate more oak signature. The Peay was a good wine, I didn’t care for the LM, it showed too big and cloying compared to the others. In the third flight my favorite was the Allemand, it was singing.

Clusel Roch taking the cake.
I don’t understand why all the N Rhone hipsters aren’t more into their wines. Benchmark, to my taste. I think to Livingstone too (whom the hipsters seem to like a lot).
Not “rustic” enough? No stems?
I don’t know…zee proof in zee pudding…
disclaimer, I represent Clusel Roch.

Sounds like a fun evening. Lots of excellent-sounding wines.

Clusel Roch’s Les Grandes Places is a very mighty and serious wine, one of the greats for sure.

Have you had the Lagier Meredith Syrah? It’s delicious, and I would not change a thing.

There are tons of great wines made with destemmed fruit. There are tons made with whole clusters.

Great notes, Alan–no Verset, but otherwise looks like a fine cross-section and well-flighted. Fun that you did throw in the Peay and LM and appreciate the notes on them—I have a 2004 LM that is up to bat sometime soon. Really like Jamets for their always-present elegance.

Sante

Mike

There is room for both in the world, and plenty of outstanding wines made both ways. Taking a dogmatic position on either is to miss the beauty of Syrah in all its forms

Interestingly, neither producer uses much, if any new oak. I’m not positive if there is any on the Peay, I know there is nothing newer than 3 year barrels on the LM. I personally could not pick out the Peay, even though I know the wine reasonably well. The 2005 in particular has always had that slightly savory note, which I thought would let it blend in with the Rhones. I didn’t write down the detailed scoring, but I know it got a lot of 1st place votes. Lagier Meredith does make a somewhat “bigger” wine (I’m guessing 14.5 vs 13.5 average for the Rhones), and it was pretty obviously the outlier in that flight - though in the context of California Syrah in general, it’s pretty tame. Placing 3rd in the company of Jamet, Allemand, and Clape seems like a pretty good showing!

I was (mostly) kidding, sorry about that.

I have enjoyed and purchased Lagier Meredith’s wines, but I knew exactly what the note was saying on it above about “the purity of fruit and overall richness”. Personally, I would really enjoy trying a wine like the LM Syrah with whole clusters, something to give all that purity of fruit (which some pro critics gush about all of the time, but which I find one dimensional and potentially boring) more complexity, nuance, freshness. But that’s just my palate.

We’ve had a similar discussion about the American oak used at Ridge, with some of us maintaining that as much as we like Ridge, we’d love it if they made a French oak red cuvee or two (the whites already get French oak). I am sure someone would say, but then it’s no longer a Lagier Meredith if they did that. That could be true.

Pat, I doubt at this point (20 vintages) that Carole and Steve will change what they do in any significant way. But if you want to explore that kind of evolution, Halcon is a good one to look at. You have the Copain versions (2008-2012), which are whole cluster (what percentage, I’m not sure), and the Halcon Alturas versions, which (up until recently) were destemmed. Paul Gordon started exploring the use of stems in 2015 (I believe), and then in 2016 made two separate wines, one with 50% (Alturas) and one with 100% (Elevacion). They are both beautiful wines, and I think I may have actually found the Elevacion more interesting. It will be interesting to see what they become after a decade and more. In this particular tasting, I was trying to follow the 15 year rule, so didn’t put in a Halcon, but at some point in the future it will be an interesting thing to do.

Very cool, Alan. I will check more of Halcon’s wines out for sure!

I love that you put an LM in this lineup, I’ve been wanting to do something similar. I consider that a fine showing for the LM, especially considering the company.

Most of my experience with LM has been with the 1998, but I’ve always thought it fit much better in a blind tasting of Hermitage than of Côte Rotie or Cornas.

Yes.

Glad to see the 04 Chave show well. Last time I had it I thought it was showing too much oak, which I normally don’t attribute to bottle variation.

Thanks for the notes, interesting results.

Is it typical for the organizer of this tasting group to source 16 wines with a common theme?

That’s a little surprising. My understanding is that no new oak is used in the St. Joseph. I’ve never had one that seemed oaky.