2004 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie- France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (6/13/2009)
We didn’t decant it, but the bottle’s been open for a few hours. Each tiny pour, straight from the bottle, smells like quivering, bloody meat. With time in the glass, it morphs into a lovely young Côte-Rôtie with violet, wild raspberry, bloody minerals (iodine? iron?) and some spice. I’m a little confused by the palate, which seems silky and nicely balanced right now, without much tannin. The finish is very long and leaves me yearning for more, but I wonder: does this have the structure to hold up for another decade? I’d love to hear thoughts on this from others who have had this wine.
I tried this at Michael’s two weeks ago. My impressions were very close to yours, though I thought there was good acid structure to last a decade. This isn’t long ageing Cote Rotie, and it was surprisingly open, but in 5 years I think it will be rocking good and in 10 it should definitely be holding together well. Just one guy’s opinion.
Thanks for your comments. We didn’t find the acid lacking at all-- just the tannins. Or, by “acid structure” do you mean something more encompassing than just the wine’s acidity?
I’ve not had this wine yet - but I’d be surprised to hear of a CR from Jamet that doesn’t hold for at least 10 years (except truly crapalistic vintages).
Jamet is Jamet, and Jamet is one of my favorite producers, but I don’t have experience with ones this young. Every previous vintage of Jamet we’ve had has been at least 10 years old. '04 is our wedding year, so I’ve been buying smaller quantities of all sorts of things in hopes of finding a few for the ages.
I think a lot of 04 wines from S. France, Spain, Italy are showing pretty well young as it was a generally warm vintage, but I also don’t doubt the longevity of the wines. I’ve thought this of several CdP, some N. Rhones, some Languedoc wines, Tempier and other Bandol, some Priorat wines, some S. Italian wines. Too early to report on 04 Brunello, and 04 Barolo/Barbaresco will be plenty long lived AND give reasonable pleasure young. Off the top of my head, the following 04’s are all “surprisingly giving” in my experience compared to their 01 or 05 counterparts: Jamet, Caillou Les Quartz, Pegau, Tempier (Classique, Migoa and Tourtine), Leon Barral, Pibarnon, St Cosme Cote Rotie, Clos Mogador, Clos Martinet, Mas Doix, Terra di Lavoro… I don’t expect any of these wines to fall apart any time soon.
melissa, I think a decent amount of 04 cote roties will last another 10 years. The acidity is nice on them and I think the tannins will hold. obviously its not going to be a very long lived vintage, but any decent producer should have their wines make it to age 15-18 easy. also, like keith said, Jamet is Jamet and this should last a while
I’m one of those people who generally believe that wines age on their acidity, not tannin. Tannin ends up being something that adds texture, and resolves during aging to lend a silkiness that might complement a sense of sweetness that age can provide to the flavor. In this case, no worries on the apparent lack of tannin. The acid provides plenty of structure for the wine to age nicely. Perhaps my estimate is conservative. 10 years should be fine. Then again, almost any wine at 15 years from a decent but nice vintage might taste great but perhaps leave you thinking “maybe ten was enough.” Who knows. Lay some down and let us know.
Very interesting, Vincent. Is this contrary to the conventional wisdom, or have I misunderstood the role “most” wine geeks attribute to tannin? I do plan to revisit this one again for our tenth anniversary in 2014…
'04s and '06 cote-roties seem to be softer, easier to drink early. '05s are massive and need cellar time. '07s are somewhere between '05s and '06s. Although I’ll caveat that by saying a lot of the '07s I tasted were a couple months away from bottling.
Thanks for the note. I really enjoyed this wine and I am in the 10-20 year camp. I personally tend toward the acid camp although a lack of tannin would be a killer. I decanted this wine for 6 hours and then drove up to a dinner at which time I thought the tannins were very evident.
I didn’t really mean to draw an either/or line with acid and tannin. Just that acid is the more central player in ageability. Tannin certainly has anti-oxidative impact, which helps with ageability. I just find tannin in red wine more about texture rather than ageability. I think this is a common belief among winemaker types, whereas most wine drinkers see tannin as the key to cellar worthiness.
Look at white wines. They have little if any tannin, but they can age if the acid’s there. Acidity also enhances the sensation of tannin in a wine, so that you might think there’s more tannin then there is depending on the acidity. Perhaps that leads us to notice tannin more, and feel it plays a bigger role in aging than I think it does. Just my three or four cents.
I’ve never managed to find a clear consensus on tannins vs acidity - too much acidity can also be a bad thing if not balanced by anything else, e.g. 96 white burgs. But I agree that I also look for acidity first, possibly because I usually like high-acidity wines anyway.
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