NYTimes: Asimov On Cote-Rotie

Nicely done article (as is usually the case) by EricAsimov:

NYTimes: Asimov On Cote-Rotie

where he sorta laments the passing of “old-style” and its replacement with big fruit/oak-slathered/high-scoring Cote-Roties (can we say LaLa here). But he does find hope w/ some producers who lie in the middle.
Tom

Good article. I agree with Asimov.

Gentaz is truly an amazing wine experience which lasts the entire evening. More should emulate his style, but it takes time in the bottle to really develop.

Yes, interesting. A bit more evidence that the “fruit bomb” worm may be turning.

It would seem that Gentaz is to Cote Rotie as Rayas is to Chateauneuf. Both are unique, and I’m not sure they represent the mainstream of what each region can (or should) produce, as much as they do something that a particular winemaker chooses to produce. Having said that, I’m supportive of the article’s point that the wines of Cote Rotie (in particular, or N. Rhone wines) have become too modern, oaky, and (here is where I would differ with the author) too stemmy.

Just what we need - more demand for Gentaz. Just about impossible to buy before the article…

I never thought of Gentaz as being idiosyncratic in style the way Rayas is. To the contrary, his wines seemed archetypical to me, as well as being the best.

I would say he is more the Giacomo Conterno of that zone…

I’m interested in where people who’ve had experience with his wines would place Jean-Michel Stephan’s Cote-Roties on the traditionalist/modernist spectrum.

My Gentaz supply is long gone. Jamet is my #1 go to domaine now, and also I like Rostaing. I want to learn more about Barge and Levet.

Fashions change. But to some extent, hemlines can only go up or down, and only so far. Burgundy raged with the stylistic civil war during the1980’s, 1990’s, and beyond. At many domaines, wines got riper, more oaky, more heavily extracted. But the tide seems to have shifted the other way, I can’t really say when, but seems to have gained pace in the last 5 to 10 years.

I think a factor in this has been the state of wine writing and wine reviewing. To the extent that Allen Meadows has become the clear leader in english-language Burg commentary, and The Wine Advocate has become less influential regarding Burgundy, market-driven producers seem to have a somewhat different roadmap.

So, perhaps the Gentaz ideal will live on and indeed gain ground in Cote Rotie at some point. Until than, I guess the LaLa’s will continue their reign on the throne. (I sold all my LaLa’s some years back, loved the high prices they fetched.)

Eric then goes on to speculate why Americans don’t buy more Syrah:
AsimovBlog

But I fear that their stylistic legacy — ultra-ripe syrah fruit and lots of new oak flavor, especially when made with grapes from less distinctive sites by less experienced winemakers — results in too many wines of little character. This, I suggest, is why American don’t buy a lot of syrah: Too many of the wines seem generic, a blend of fruit and oak that may be vaguely pleasant but could come from anywhere and be made of any grape.

That may very well be true at the low end (<$15/btl), but I don’t see that at the mid-high end (>$20/btl). I think maybe I see that more in WashState Syrah than in Calif Syrah…least the ones I buy.
The “savory” element in Cote-Rotie is what really attracts me. I don’t see that in too many from Calif, though.
Tom

Tom, I think there is a lot of higher-priced CA syrah that Eric is thinking about. Just my $0.02.

You’re probably right, Lew. There’s a bunch of them, mostly NapaVlly, that taste like Syrah made by a Cabernet producer.
Extracted, high alcohol, slathered w/ new Fr.oak. Fortunately, I know enough to avoid them. If they produce a high-end
NapaVlly Cabernet, I flee in the other direction when I see their Syrah.
Tom

I have never had a Gentaz Cote Rotie but from the description would suggest that Eric Texier’s Cote Rotie can be similarly described. The 2001 particularly.

Give me an f’ing break about Syrah not selling in America compared to Cote-Rotie because of the style.

If all of Cornas, Cote-Rotie, Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, and St. Joseph were planted to Syrah (rather than to the white grapes planted in some of these regions) there would be 8155 acres of Syrah grown in the Northern Rhone.

There are currently 19,283 acres of Syrah planted in California.

I would say then that more California-made Syrah sells in America than Northern Rhone Syrah simply because so much more is made of it. The problem is that not enough sells to keep up with the acreage planted in California – it isn’t style, it is overplanting.

Adam Lee
Siduri & Novy

Adam

I agree with you 100%. Syrah seems to be a “geek” wine that does not appeal to the masses. We need to lose a lot more acreage before we get back into supply/demand balance.
Are you seeing Syrah acreage being budded over?

Paul,

I have a vineyard that is pulling out a bit of Syrah to plant Pinot. But, looking at the grape acreage statistics, I don’t see a lot of Syrah being pulled out in CA.

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines & Novy Family Winery

To support the style point you are making Adam, according to some quick research, France has some 125,000 acres planted to syrah but it would seem much of the French syrah is in the languedoc and south and used in blending, not pure or even majority syrah based wines. I have often wondered why CA doesn’t follow that trend as much. The GSMs and the like I have tried from CA,like the Windgap GSM, are great.

When I visited Rene Rostaing in 2003 I asked him why his wines don’t exhibit the meaty and funky qualities that so many others do. He said that is because they are faults caused by dirty winemaking. If you look at the barrels in his cellar, they are spotless, with none of the red staining that one often sees on barrels between the rings.

While I can accept that people have opinions on how much oak should be in the wine; preferences are like how much of a particular spice you want on your dish. But is seems like Asimov is lamenting the passing of dirty winemaking.

It’s essentially the same in Washington. Once Syrah gained a foothold there, many growers treated it as if it were Cabernet, planted in the same places, treated it the same in the cellar. The result is that the percent of quality Syrah in Washington is considerably lower than the percent of quality Cabernet Sauvignon.
By the same token, we know that there is great potential for Syrah given the results of Cayuse, K Vintner’s/Charles Smith, Gramercy, and a few others.