A Northern Rhone Dinner (and bittersweet farewell)

WINE TALK
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Attendees: Neil and Leslie, Jay, Salil, Megan and Me. Neil and Leslie are leaving town in two weeks so we sent them off with a blowout dinner at Noreetuh. The food was as good as always and the service impeccable.

Sorry in advance for the FOMO.

We started with Champage and white Burgundy:

2013 Benoit Lahaye Champagne Violaine
The Lahaye was incredible. So pleasing and seductive for a brut nature wine. Amazingly fine – need to buy some of this.

2013 Domaine de Montille Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Le Cailleret
The de Montille is packed and stacked and really needs a lot of air. I popped and poured at the restaurant and the wine was flinty and reserved at first but started to stretch out in the glass. Very rich, there’s a lot of material here with serious palate weight, and further aging is merited. Beautiful wine though.

2021 Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Chevalières
This was so light and airy compared to the de Montille. Beautiful herbs on the nose (tarragon) with a rainwater freshness, and delicate and ethereal on the palate. My second Fichet and man these are good wines.

1980s Rhones:

We drank the 1980s before the younger wines because why not? Glad we did because the 90s blew away the 80s.

1983 Pierre Barge Côte-Rôtie
Sadly this was corked, lightly enough that one could sense beautiful material beneath the taint, but alas. The sacrifice to Bacchus.

1985 Clusel Roch Côte-Rôtie
Strikingly good wine, really good heart of smoky and savory Syrah character. Neil double-decanted prior to dinner and this wine was right in the zone. I’d be happy to drink this anytime.

1985 Vallouit Hermitage Les Greffières
Salil’s birth year, and an obsession of his and mine. This was past peak but still an enjoyable wine. The color was a good red but pale for Hermitage; the nose was really odd, golden raisins, a sort of vin santo vibe. This was more correct on the palate, hearty and broad.

1991s flight:

1991 Marie-Claude Lafoy et Vincent Gasse Côte-Rôtie
Wow, this was really powerful and vigorous with a dark red color and a super classic Côte-Rôtie of ash, meat, floral tones, the works. There was just a slight little hiccup in the midpalate but otherwise this was really top-drawer stuff. Popped and poured and this needed a good amount of air to unfurl. Great bottle with perfect fill. It must have been a beast in its youth as the entire interior of the bottle was stained dark red.

1991 Domaine Gallet Côte-Rôtie
This was my WOTY for 2024, and this bottle was as good as the other. Utterly seamless and perfect, beautiful sweet and floral nose, classic blue fruits and smoky/savory, just so pretty and elegant and so, so long. What a brilliant vintage 1991 was in Côte-Rôtie.

Final flight:

1998 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie
Boom! This started off behind the 1991s but closed the gap with time in the glass. Very young seeming, classic, with all the things you want from Jamet. I’d place this behind the Gallet, which is just epic, and ahead of the Gasse, but not by that much. Would love to try this again in 5-10 years. Another data point confirming that the 1998 vintage is outstanding for Côte-Rôtie and the best wines have room to run.

2001 Noël Verset Cornas
Really good wine, such a treat to drink Verset. Bright red fruit and a beefy/porky heart, with the rumbling rusticity one expects from Cornas and especially Verset. This was an excellent wine but maybe not the greatest Verset. Still, so good. It’s inevitable in lineups like this that great wines will get lost in the shuffle, and this was one of those wines.

1999 Noël Verset Cornas
JFC. I last tasted this wine in 2013, when it was the finest wine on the table among such brilliant efforts as 1997 Chave, 1997 Jamet, 1994 Guigal La Mouline, and 1997 Clusel-Roch Les Grandes Places (a 1994 Rayas matched it – it was that kind of night). And last night was no different – this is a magnificent wine. This had the Verset kaleidoscope – all the savory, meaty, brothy, floral, ashy, everything notes, powerful red-blue fruits and rich pork broth, granitic mineral finish. Incredible. So many years ahead on this one.

Wines of the night for me were the Lahaye, Gallet, and, obviously, the Verset. I went to the well for this dinner and will have to reload for when Neil and Leslie come back to visit.

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Love that place

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That’s a heck of a lineup.

I used to have easy access to Fichet - lovely stuff.

The Northern Rhone lineup is mouthwatering!

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It’s fascinating to see all the notes pointing to this being on the younger side. So exciting for future.

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One thing to consider, there are two different releases, there was a re-release maybe four years ago. Those wines are consistently really, really good.

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Really great notes. Even though I’ve had few of these producers your notes made me feel like I was right there tasting. Cool stuff.

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Maybe @salilb can weigh in on which release the Jamet was. He also should come by and take honors for bringing the 99 Verset.

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Thank you!

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Verset is my undisputed champ of the N Rhône. Even among the best, it always seems to stand out. I’m still a buyer even at today’s loony pricing.

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I think it should be clear based on label if you have a picture or remember. Rerelease (also of the 99) has the goldish background black writing and says domaine Jamet on top.

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Damn, where do I even start with this one? This was just all kinds of epic, bittersweet as you said but so much fun and just a ridiculous lineup. A very appropriate sendoff.

Thoughts on some of the wines/flights:

Fichet - so this is my second Fichet, the second dinner where Neil’s brought a Fichet at the start of a big red lineup, and we’re 2 for 2 on these wines grabbing my attention and never letting go. Loved everything about this; so gentle and understated, yet such a sense of presence and intensity on that light frame. Gorgeous. (I’d have more thoughts on the Lahaye/Montille, if the Fichet hadn’t kept stealing my attention then. Also, so good with the fried chicken.)

The 80s Rhones
Barge - argh. painfully sad that was corked, because some of the old Barge C-Rs I’ve had were just incredible, and this had all the signs underneath it, despite the faint mustiness.
Clusel - yup, your note nailed it, so pretty, right in the zone.
Vallouit - I think I liked it more than you did (perhaps birthyear bias?), but I also felt this really freshened up and showed better when revisiting it. The first impression I had was more like yours, and it felt a bit faded. But with more air the fruit really seemed to emerge, though it still seemed slightly past peak.

91s:
Goodness the Lafoy et Gasse was beautiful. So lively and bright, really piercing intensity to that fruit. There was also a slight sharpness to the acidity on the palate, the type I associate with more natty wines, but the whole package was delicious.
But for me, the Gallet was just stupid good. One of my favorites of the night (only behind the '99Verset). Love everything about these wines, from the old school fat farmer labels to the elegancee and finesse on the palate, just amazing Cote-Rotie all grown up and at peak.

Last flight:
The Jamet was killer. Just kept going from strength to strength, really tight when we opened it but it kept unraveling new layers of fruit and meat and all other good things with time. Beautiful wine, though I’ll give my next one a bit of time.

The two Versets - oh, man, what a pair. The '01 was the kind of wine that might have stolen the show in other lineups. A bit more understated, not having the same midpalate depth and power of the '99, though plenty of burly tannin underneath - amazing to think that’s because Noël was no longer farming some parcels (Sabarotte mainly) as they were too steep for him at that age (and he was already ~80 at that time - just a legend).
The 99 - how do you describe perfection? For me this was pretty much the summit. I’ve had some variation with this vintage in the past, some bottles showing more VA or brett issues, but this was everything I could want and then some. Last of my bottles, but what a perfect occasion and showing.

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It was the later release - I got these from RWC a few years back, and the label was as Ethan described. Gold/white background on the label, DOMAINE JAMET and the vintage in red, Cote-Rotie in black text.

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I like the old Jamet label so much better, but I can’t complain about the contents of the bottles. The 1991 Gallet, 1998 Jamet, and 1999 Verset are among my all-time favorite wines. Unfortunately I only have the Jamet left in my cellar.

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agreed, the old labels were so great.

(also, really like the Gallet wines even now, but the old labels - the fat farmers - were so awesome.)

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You know, the 91 Gallet was my 2024 WOTY - but it wouldn’t have been if I had had any 99 Verset!

I think this might be the Rule of 99 Verset in action.

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By line three, with Salil in the house and this being a blowout, I just knew Verset was being pulled!!!

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The 1998 Jamet Côte-Rôtie and 1998 Chave Hermitage are simply two of the finest Rhone wines produced in decades.

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That’s the Rule of Salil and Verset.

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YES!

That’s what I’m talking about.

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That 1998 Jamet is epic. Sadly, I’m now out!!