N. Rhone -- recent vintages

Those of you who are in the loop – how would you characterize 17/18/19 for reds in St Jo, Cornas, Cote Rotie?

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Ripe.

I hear 2020 will be great, in the “bad-year-for-people-good-year-for-wine” scenarios.

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Ripe. Riper. And then 19, not sure.

I like 17, bought very selectively in 18. I think I have only Gonon in 19, need to check.

Well Otto already used the right word.

I prefer 17 to 18, though some good 18’s exist (Balthazar!). 19 i have not really tasted yet, but the abv seems to exceed the 18’s in a few of the wines i have seen available online. That is scary to me hehe… Côte-Rôtie might do a little better in these warm vintages as it is more North.

Sounds like a more classic vintage. My plan is to backfill until the 20’s release, and skip 18 and 19 mostly.

I bought a lot of 2017s.

I skipped many 2018s, but that’s largely out of exhaustion - I’ve spent a lot over the past couple years on Rhone wines and so I’ve backed off a bit. The 2018s I’ve tasted are powerful and ripe.

2019: I have purchased some Mickael Bourg Cornas but nothing else so far, in line with the above.

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I feel like gorging on the 2015’s will keep me awash for a decade, so I hardly nibbled on later years.

I’ve got a Chappelle vertical 2015-2018. Passed on 2019. Bought Grel 2017 and 2018 heavily, too. Not had any yet.

Prices in Rhone keeps creeping up, and I dont think many of the wines are sell out so opportunity to backfill should be readily available going forwards imho.

I am not in the recent Northern Rhone loop, either. Stopped buying for collecting after the 2012 vintage. Am just a passer-by here with interest in the region.

But, based on most/all responses here, '17-'19 is an extension of the ripe 2015. Yes? No?

Rhone newbie here as well… how is ripe 17, 18 different than ripe 15? (sorry… duplicate question)

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Funny, sounds like a lot of us are on N Rhone overload! Glad to see I’m not the only one, I think Fu too. I’ve got lots through 2016 then started slowing down the purchases.

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Is 2019 that overripe, riper than even 2018?

I just started haha. But i am young and need to fill up! Bought maybe 60-70 bottles of Cote-Rotie and maybe 30 bottles of Cornas in the last year. But i have mostly been backfilling. Half of that is 2016. Then there is quite a few 12’s and 13’s. And then a few 15’s and 17’s. Five bottles of 2018 actually (Baltahzar, Jean-Luc Jamet and Verset).

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I’ve had a couple of 18s and 19s and they weren’t as ripe as I feared (though I also wouldn’t have called them delicate). I wasn’t in love with 18 as a vintage, but unless a year is as hot as 03, I think the northern Rhone can survive a warmer year better than Burgundy can. Having poured a number of 03 northern Rhônes down the drain in the last few years*, I didn’t get that level of heat on any of the wines I tried in 17/18/19.

*Even producers I’d have expected to do better, like Sorrel’s Le Greal and Levet’s Chavaroche. They weren’t wholly undrinkable, but no one wanted to finish them. The best 03 Rhone I’ve ever had was the Bonneau Marie Beurrier. What Henry Bonneau could do with “bad vintages” is crazy.

Maybe with us heavies backing off the prices will come down? (asif!)

My prior assumption was that NoRho fat years only happened every 5 years on average…but now we seem to have solar vintages all the time…so blowing all the space/resources on the big years is not as necessary (now).

It also seems like WB talk about Northern Rhone in a way that is disproportionate to the their overall Rhone production. I think the AOC wines are only 5-10% of total Rhone Valley output.

Well, this lightweight that backed off still bit into a shared case of 2017 Benetierre Cordeluxrhone. Any ideas as to the wine?

Is WB talk about Napa Cabs proportionate to the overall California wine production?

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None other than I bought half a case of it myself!

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