TN: 2006 Domaine Yves Cuilleron Condrieu Les Chaillets

WINE TALK
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  • 2006 Domaine Yves Cuilleron Condrieu Les Chaillets - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Condrieu (6/7/2014)

I had it in June 2013 as part of a large wine tasting, and it was superurb. As a result, I made tentative plan to taste again a year later. So, a year later, the revisit to the bottle took place. A great Condrieu selection, once again. Wonderful nose, very smooth, right balance with a hint of sweetness. This time, we had a chance to test it’s development over few hours (and left a bit to check tomorrow. Color Yellow to Light gold, after about an hour it develops spicy hints as well. The floral nose seems to come up later as well. On the nose and taste, mineral, lemon and honey. Some peach as well. Very nice, long finish. Had it with several small appetizers for dinner (tapas style, veggies, meats and some smoked cheese). We uphold previous opinion that it still has few more good years to enjoy. But it was the last bottle of the '06 we had. If you have one, drink it or hold it abit more. If you don’t plan on drinking it, we’d be happy to have a trade [cheers.gif]

(94, would not oppose a 95 as well) (94 pts.)

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Thanks for the post!

Still trying to figure out drinking windows for condrieu. Vexing at times.

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Nice…curious whether the “hint of sweetness” meant, that to you, this wine was off dry or had some residual sugar in it?

I love the condrieus of georges Vernay…but…the others’ have long perplexed me, including “drining windows”, so I dont’ buy them, though they interest me a lot.

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I would not classify it as off dry, nor say that there are issues of residual sugar. It just has a hint (‘cort’,‘touch’) of sweetness. I would say it is derived probably from the honey and peach on the nose (but the peach for me was very small on the nose). I like that along with the spices smell and the overall nose. I took few pictures with cell and I’d see if any of them does justice to the color of the wine in glass. . Wonderful wine flirtysmile
The last time I opened it was in 2013. I would overall say it is as good or even better.

I find that always to be of great interest. In general, the drinking windows tend to be underestimated, e.g. for the '06 we opened most CT users specified drinking windows of 2007-2011 (IMHO, very short span- hi, those who specified 2011 and still have few in proper storage- call me for a trade) I’d be very happy to have another '06 next year and see how it goes. I would say that in proper cellaring it would be as good or better.