2015 Rhones - What are you buying??

Robert_M_yers · February 9, 2018, 12:35pm

That’s a lot of coin for only a 93 pt wine

I bought some Darnaud at fil du Temps

Jonathan_Loesberg · February 9, 2018, 5:37pm

I took this to be a de facto Northern Rhone thread. I have bought Charvin and Ferrand in 2015. I will probably buy Pegau and Eddie Feraud. It’s a very good vintage, at the least, more like the 09 than the 10, but, if you buy carefully, very good wines. I would buy more but I’m trying to expand the diversity of my cellar and I’m just buying a lot less since I’m getting old and need to reduce my cellar.

Andrew_Kotowski · February 11, 2018, 6:32pm

Have had several bottles of 2015 Cornas across producers and they’ve been massive. Drinking a 2015 Maison Les Alexandrins now and it’s tannic/concentrated after a three hour decant. Would love to try these again in five to seven years, but I’ll be long gone…

DanielP · February 11, 2018, 6:46pm

Dark.

Andrew_Kotowski · February 11, 2018, 7:53pm

Hah! No - was referring to my time in Paris, rather than on this Earth. I’m blessed with access to a lot of wines (Cornas and Crozes Hermitage, especially, for whatever reason) but generally off the shelf without a lot of age. I anticipate moving back to the US in the next year or two.

Robert.A.Jr · February 13, 2018, 1:17am

Jayson Cohen:

Zachary Ross:

I’ve drank a bunch of 2015s. They are ripe but in large part fresh and balanced. I am eager to see what happens when the primary fruit ebbs with age, but like everyone I’ve got to wait for it!

Here are notes I have on some of these wines:

2015 Dumien-Serrette / Nicolas Serrette Cornas Les Saveaux - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (1/4/2018)
I’m keen on these 2015s while the early fruit is still hanging around, and this is still squarely in its youth. It starts off with a screechy reductive nose, but after a while that blows off, showing textbook violets, spices, and meat. Though ripe and flavorful this is a lean, muscular wine of super fresh red fruit and deep gravelly minerality. Complex and delicious. There’s a rough-and-tumble aspect, blood and guts, roiling beneath the veneer of fruit. Firm and stony finish. Great stuff.

2015 Guillaume Gilles Cornas Nouvelle R Les Rieux Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (12/15/2017)
Masterpiece. This is a new wine I believe from young vines at high altitude. There’s just so much in this package, from vivid stony and wild stemmy scents to roasting, searing, bloody meat and palate-staining fruit. Unreal freshness and balance, with suave tannins and rocky granite minerality on the finish. This really is the complete package and is a delight to drink with the baby fat still hanging around. Guillaume Gilles is the real deal.

2015 Bernard Burgaud Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (11/12/2017)
Got one to try, for science! Clenched tight, with a good decant this showed red fruit with great depth and purity. On day two it’s more open, but still very well defined with freshness, enormous depth and the extra gear of intensity from the vintage. Really nice wine.

2015 Emmanuel Darnaud St. Joseph Dardouille - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (11/12/2017)
Fass train’s in, and I don’t believe in travel shock so here goes. This is a dark bruiser, major brooding action and damn tannic on the finish right out of the gate. With a lot of air it composes itself some; it’s clear there’s a lot here but this is going to need time. On day two, this is much more revealing, though still dark and dense: meat, bark, feral wildness, and enamel-like palate-coating tannin. I keep sucking at my teeth, there’s such huge grip here. I am sensing a theme with 2015 Saint-Joseph - these are hulking wines that one hopes will relax in time.

2015 Domaine des Pierres Seches St. Joseph Sainte-Epine - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (11/10/2017)
Kapoom. From vines planted in the 1960s. Seriously dense and velvety wine, dark and brooding with huge smoked/cured meats on the nose - think salami and speck. On the palate, gravel-flecked dark purple fruit undergirds the meat. Thick, ripe tannins envelop the tongue. Imposing, a real bomber, and one of the meatiest wines I’ve had, and damn good at that.

2015 Domaine Jamet Syrah Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes (8/8/2017)
Like others, I am disappointed. Perfectly fine wine but nothing to get excited about. Unexceptional. There are so many other wines from this region and vintage and at this price point that deliver far more on their potential.

2015 Jacques Lemenicier Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (6/4/2017)
Not that interesting. In a vintage that often provides fireworks, this is pretty foursquare and boring.

2015 Domaine de la Côte Sainte-Epine St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (5/16/2017)
I’d let this sit a year or three before trying them.

2015 Clusel-Roch St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (3/29/2017)
This confused the hell out of me. Popped and poured, the wine struck me as nothing other than Gamay. There was so little about it that spoke of Syrah from the Northern Rhone that I wondered if perhaps they had bottled the wrong wine! (Clusel-Roch produces a couple of Gamay wines.) On day 2, however, there’s a haunting floral/potpourri note and a sinewy, salty olive affect on the back end that reaffirms this wine’s place of origin. I’ll try decanting next time.

2015 Julien Barge St. Joseph Les Coteaux de Legende - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (11/12/2016)
Dag, this is terrific. Inky and dark, this has floral notes, roasted meats and granite stoniness in spades. The dark fruit’s sticky pitch clings to the glass and palate. This has crazy extract and depth but it’s all very well defined. Top-drawer Saint-Joseph for sure.

Nice notes and a different take than above notes. The new Gilles wines sounds interesting. Since I understand the vines in Les Rieux were planted only three years ago, this is probably the first wine that could have been made, and on a plot of land that may never have allowed ripening a few years ago. Fascinating. Sounds like one that may really be best drunk young but who knows. The first couple of vintages from other places have surprised with their longevity on occasion.

I really wanna like this wine, but cannot say that the 2015 Gilles Les Rieux is working for me. Definitely a leaner, more-AFWE inspired wine, with a green stemmy streak, but the dryness and lack of ripeness to the fruit is a bit much even for this Loire/Northern Rhone guy. Not that is bad, it is not, but that it is just not inspiring to me for the $50 ticket. Had a 2015 Levet Amethyste for the same price, and it blows this Gilles away. Seems to me you are better off dropping the extra $10 for the very tasty big boy Cornas cuvee from Gilles. Finishes with a short, bitter clip. Do like the stony nose very much and the soft touch with alcohol in this flamboyant vintage.

Been following this wine for two nights. Could be that this wine needs some time, but every 2015 Northern Rhone that I have tried was more effusive than this, yes tannic, but also more ripe and effusive. I would not be a buyer after this bottle.

Craig_G · February 13, 2018, 8:22pm

When I was a baby we moved to Belgium for two years and came back sixteen years later!

H_Wallace_Jr · February 13, 2018, 10:09pm

I had the '15 Dard & Ribo Hermitage w/ steak au poivre in Paris 2wks ago.

We decanted the wine for about 45min. It was young, on the fuller bodied side (without being clunky, overripe, hot, etc), it still had good acids, and damn, it was perfect w/ the steak preparation…

CFu · February 14, 2018, 9:27pm

Levet is allocated now for 2015. Crazy. You could have bought whatever you wanted before. Hell I had my buddy grab 6 mags of 12 Chavaroche last week from the distributor cause they were sitting on 50+ mags!!!

Jonathan_G · February 14, 2018, 10:06pm

A shame – Levet was one of the producers that led me to be interested in the Northern Rhone in the first place. Thought they were relatively safe for a while at least.

CFu · February 14, 2018, 10:13pm

what’s crazy is the prior vintages aren’t allocated right this moment. So if you are a retailer/restaurant you can just go and get some.

John_Morris · February 14, 2018, 10:37pm

Just picked up two more '10 Chavaroches for under $50 ten days ago.

Robert.A.Jr · February 14, 2018, 10:50pm

Levet is getting hyped pretty heavily but I really think it is the vintage that has now gotten more hyped. And many of us here are all guilty. . All of my favorite wines have gone up dramatically in price, I’m actually now starting to pass on some. I did pick up a six pack of the Levet, the first time I have ever had my allocation of this wine cut, but that’s OK as I can easily get other years, including 2010, for less. Right now I think 2010 is a better vintage.

David_Mc · February 14, 2018, 10:55pm

Are you talking about:

2015 Vignobles Levet - Cote Rotie Amethyste

Jonathan_G · February 14, 2018, 11:02pm

Ah, enablers, all of you. I’ll go and pick up that 2014 Chavaroche I’ve been eyeing… been telling myself “just wait for the '15” but who knows how many bottles of that I can actually get.

CFu · February 14, 2018, 11:20pm

no

John_Morris · February 14, 2018, 11:30pm

That’s their base bottling, which is not imported by their main US importer but is available some places (e.g., Bassin’s in DC a few months ago). But as you’ll see from posts above here and in other threads, people have had good experiences with the '15 Amethyste. The Journaries and the Chavarouche are the somewhat better bottlings.

Zachary_Ross · February 15, 2018, 12:51pm

Robert Alfert:

I really wanna like this wine, but cannot say that the 2015 Gilles Les Rieux is working for me. Definitely a leaner, more-AFWE inspired wine, with a green stemmy streak, but the dryness and lack of ripeness to the fruit is a bit much even for this Loire/Northern Rhone guy. Not that is bad, it is not, but that it is just not inspiring to me for the $50 ticket. Had a 2015 Levet Amethyste for the same price, and it blows this Gilles away. Seems to me you are better off dropping the extra $10 for the very tasty big boy Cornas cuvee from Gilles. Finishes with a short, bitter clip. Do like the stony nose very much and the soft touch with alcohol in this flamboyant vintage.

Been following this wine for two nights. Could be that this wine needs some time, but every 2015 Northern Rhone that I have tried was more effusive than this, yes tannic, but also more ripe and effusive. I would not be a buyer after this bottle.

Interesting. My one pass at it was very effusive! I’ll pop another at some point and follow up. Also I paid closer to $40 all in.

Robert.A.Jr · February 15, 2018, 1:02pm

It was your note that prompted me, in part, to buy this new bottling. I do like the Gilles Cornas very much. Funny that I panned the gamay this past month and was not thrilled with this new bottling either. Our perceptions are so dramatically different that I really am assuming some degree of bottle variation here. My bottle was not bad or damaged, it just was not, in your words, “effusive”.

A_Songeur · February 15, 2018, 2:18pm

I just bought JL Chave St Joseph (original) based on producer reputation. Hope it is any good. Anybody tasted?