2007 Delas Frères Côtes du Rhône Saint-Esprit- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône (4/7/2009)
Smells like a rich Cali Syrah initially with heavy fruits and notes of pepper and a touch of brett. Full extracted palate of young modern Syrah. On night two this settles in a bit though it still seems more new worldish than most CdR’s. Raspberry nose with some dusty soil like notes. Palate has lost much of the fleshiness and gained plenty of tart. Not a lot of complexity here but plenty of fruit and decent balance. A very good bottle for the $10 but pales next to several other 07 CdR’s for just $2-5 more.
After drinking about thirty bottles with Chris last month I discovered that we shared many palate instincts in our tasting notes. I agree that the La Garrique Cuvée is a more complete wine than the Delas Frères at this point although neither wine is showing its best yet. They probably need another 6-8 months to really display their distinctive vintage characteristics. The St Cosme is a very nice wine that is a bit more syrapy at this point and I don’t know whether time will alter its approach dramatically.
I also enjoyed the Domaine les Grands Bois Cairanne Cuvee Maximilian and Cuvee Philippine that are at this point both more complete wines for similar prices. The Grands Bois Cotes du Rhone Villages Rasteau Cuvee Marc is double the price of the wines Chris mentioned, but more like an excellent CDP than a CDR and well worth the price of admission.
Thank God someone said it. All the love for this bottling was becoming like the emperor’s new clothes. Based on all the hot TNs, I bought a few of these and tried one last night. Disappointing, though that was most probably due to higher expectations. Frankly, I far preferred the St. Cosme, and found the Delas overtly sweet and much more about red, rather than black fruit. Does anyone know the % of Syrah in here, because to me it tastes mostly of average Grenache.
Whoa - interesting. Well, I guess it’s either a producer signature, or just from a different part of the AOC than the Cosme, because I thought they were literally black and red. I’ll have to do a side-by-side.
Funny because I found the Delas similar to the Cosme on the surface when I first smelled it and tasted it. The depth and concentration just were not on the same level to me though. The Cosme also has nice nice old world funk and rustic notes.
Agreed. Just pouring them in the glass - the difference in color shade and depth was obvious. On d’other board, there’s some bespeak of bottle variation, so maybe all things aren’t created equal. I bought mine at Winex.