Advice to those cellaring 2007 Segries Lirac - one person's experience contrary to RMP rating

I had to snort out a laugh at a review of the 2007 Chateau de Segries Lirac Cuvee Reservee in the latest WA. Reprinted from the importer’s website “A brilliant red wine which requires another 6-12 months of bottle age… (yada, yada)… this offering should be forgotten for a year or so, and consumed over the following decade.” - Wine Advocate (June 09), 90+ pts.

I have a story to tell of a 12 pack of 1998 that I bought 9 years ago based on a similar write-up. Figuring that a good Southern Rhone from a great vintage should easily go 10 years, and since I like a bit of age on my wines, I tasted one bottle after purchase (it performed as expected compared to the review), and I squirrelled away the other 11 bottles for 7 years. A couple of years ago I opened bottle #2. Something bad had happened inside the bottle and the wine was off tasting and fizzy. #3 same, #4 better, #5 same, #6 fizzy but better after decanting the bottle back and forth to get rid of the gas, and letting it sit for a day.

I wrote to the importer Kysela, and asked if they had any problems with this wine. They said no. I asked if they would like to test the wine, and they agreed, and asked me to send 2 bottles (shouldn’t 1 bottle have been enough?) to them for testing. So I boxed up two bottles, and sent them at my expense. A couple of weeks later, I received an email from Kysela that there was nothing wrong with the wines, but that a wine like this should be consumed in a year or two, and is not meant to be cellared for 8-10 years. There was no offer of any compensation for the case of crappy bottles I bought, or even to replace the 2 bottles I sent for testing. True, I never asked for a replacement, but I would have thought that a family importer like Kysela would have volunteered, and I thought that it was too gauche to ask.

Since then, bottles #8-#12 provided pretty much the same drinking experiences as bottle #2-#6, which was variably poor.

Needless to say, I will never buy another bottles of Segries. I will probably never again buy another bottle of wine imported by Kysela. And considering what has happened to the Segries, and another highly recommended '98 that has turned out to be a great disappointment (Marcoux), it all adds a bit more doubt about the fallibility of tasting notes from the critic who was my go-to guy for Rhone wines for years.

Anyways, based on my experience, if you are still planning to save your 2007 Segries Lirac for “the following decade”, don’t say that you haven’t been warned.

Ex-ex cathedra ? [berserker.gif]

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Had a bottle of the 07 a couple weekends ago and thought the wine was drinking perfectly. No need to cellar IMO.

What??? Are you disagreeing with The Emperor as well? What part of “requires another 6-12 months of bottle age” did you not understand? Maybe your sample was heat damaged (by leaving it in your trunk too long, could never be the importer/distributer fault) :wink:

I was shocked at how quickly the 2002 Shotfire Cuvée disintegrated into undrinkable dreck.

I actually got sick [physically ill] from trying to drink my last bottle a few years ago.

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Personally, I don’t pay attention to the drinking windows any more. I buy a wine, based upon whatever factors (reviews, past experience with producer/importer, vintage, cost, recommendation by wine store/wine board members/friends, and/or desire to try something new) then open and try that wine and make a decision when to consume my remaining bottles.

This wine was very tasty but it did not show like a wine that needed significant air/decant time. No rough acidity or tannins. Supple, silky fruit that was ready to go…

Now, if anyone is cellaring those WA Syrahs that Jay Miller gave drinking windows out to 2045 until 2045…good luck with those pups.

Agreed. Drinking windows are inane and so personal as to be almost irrelevant.

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Agreed. Many peoples well aged is many others far too young.

My 2002 Shotfires evolved nicely-- I was sad to see the last one go (about a year ago), and both the Shiraz and Cuvee rank up there on my all-time QPR list. On the other hand, the Marquis-Philips wines started off horrible and never improved. Not sure why yours became undrinkable.

I would expect any quality Syrah to age for 7 years. Just my taste.

huh… thanks for the note and I need to find a bottle of this. Just had an '05 of this the other day and thought is was excellent and there was nothing to make me think it would fall apart quickly.

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Errol

To be fair, RMP says to drink the 98 Segries Lirac Cuvee Reservee by 2005.

Darn, I missed the best drink date by 2 years. No wonder it was all fizzy. I had no idea that wines could be good at 7 years old, and then completely become undrinkable by age 9. And what forecasting accuracy!

I guess that I am never too old to learn new things. I better re-subscribe to Parker, check out all his drinking windows, and toss everything in my cellar that is outside the guidelines by a year of more.
[cry.gif]

In all fairness the wine doesn’t sound like it is over the hill. A description of fizzy sounds like a wine that is refermenting. Meaning probably bottled unfined unfiltered and there was a little rs and some microbial activity.

Tony, thanks for chiming in again, that’s what I would have figured, but then I can’t figure out why the lab tests wouldn’t have found anything.

Anyways, with my experience on the wine and with Kysela, the end result is that there is lots of other wines, and lots of other people selling wine, that I won’t ever buy a Segries again.

Maybe because their ‘laboratory’ was located down their gullets! [drinks.gif]

I had a smilar experience with their 2001s, thoough I made the call several years back and dumped them. Parker is way off on this producer, imho.

These are the types of producers/importers that Parker denies exist. TOny Velebil nailed it.

These wines go through refermentation because they are unfined and unfiltered with a little residual sugar.

These guys go for the “pure” winemaking because it tastes great when young, and then it turns to shit.

These are 2-3 year wines, and then they will turn to shit again. It is entirely plausible and hopefully likely, that the Domaine has fixed what they are doing and maybe the 2007 will last.

How Kysela handled it for Errol is deplorable. He sent them two btls of wine and they told him to go to hell. Typical. But Kysela and Parker are buds. Kysela does not need Errol Kovitch, he just needs Bob Parker.

Read this thread…that is all you need to see…he showed Parker a private label wine and then Parker goes and shoots his mouth off about it…those retailers are laughing all the way to the bank…
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I had an 07 Segries ‘Clos d’Hermitage’ [Cotes du Rhone] last night. In this TN I point out that its made by Henri Lanzac at Segries, although the label is discreet about that, only mentioning Lanzac on the bottom in small type, and not stating Segries at all. This is a single vineyard CdR owned by a regional celebrity, who has their neighbors manage/vinify/bottle up their GSM grapes. So it’s sort of affilliated even if not explicitly part of the Segries lineup. It’s a big, dark wine at 14.5% abv. Thick legs. When I first opened the bottle, I got a tiny prickle on the tongue, but it quickly blew off, and I didn’t detect any flaws. There is licorice/fennel on the nose; on the palate its low acid, easy to drink while prepping dinner, but it is heavy, perhaps the grapes were picked too late. I’m not sure when would have been the right time to drink this – young when it must have been grapey or after some years when it should have settled down. Other than a few Charvin CdR’s this should be finishing up the Cotes du Rhone level wines from the 2007 vintage for me. Pricing has always been ambitious for this bottling, so I’ll pass on current releases. I’m conflicted on what to grade it – I’ll see how the rest of the bottle is tonight but would likely slot in on the B to B+ zone. Maybe on the low side if one feels the wine is too girthy.

My kids came home with some trout, so I made trout almondine (albeit with almond flour rather than slivered almonds) for supper. The wine doesn’t go with it all – its like a sommelier war crime.
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PS: added later, I realize now I had the 98 Segries base CdR, but that was shortly after release, maybe within a year or two. I don’t recall anything odd or distinctive about it, beyond the label.

That was a great post to raise a nine year old thread from the dead! I’d be happy to drink anything with that trout.