Harry Karis is the Netherlands-based author of The Châteauneuf-du-Pape Wine Book, which I recently reviewed here: Review-Harry Karis, The Châteauneuf-du-Pape Wine BookRJonWine.com He visited the Bay Area at the beginning of this month on a book tour through the States. I got to spend a few evenings with him on this visit, and have also had a chance to review the excellent spinoffs of his book that he and his designer/photographer son have created–a compact travel guide with a wonderful chart on all the producers, and an eBook in which much of the typos and grammar problems I noted in the book version have been corrected–which I will be reporting on further here. This gathering, where I got to meet Harry for the first time, was a special blindtasting of '89 and '90 Châteauneuf-du-Papes with my usual weekly blindtasting group, on a different day than usual for us–Tuesday–to accommodate Harry’s schedule. As usual, the organizer of these tastings for the past 30 years, Ross Bott, brought all the wines for our blindtasting. This was an awesome and irresistible group of CdPs, from two of the great vintages of the past 25 years. Most all of these I’ve tasted once or many times before, but this was great chance to hear from Harry on these wines and domaines, and blindtastings of wines that I know and love are always instructive.
Below is a video clip of Harry introducing himself, and talking briefly about the '89 and '90 vintages. As Harry explains, both '89 and '90 were hot vintages in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Wines from '89 tend to have good extraction, low acid, and good tannic structure. The following year produced wines that are, in many cases, even riper, sometimes with a “roasted” quality, with similar low acidity and tannins. Harry sees both vintages as among the last great ones made by the older generation of CdP winemakers. Both vintages were notorious for bottles that often showed high levels of brettanomyces. Harry said that extensive cleaning and refurbishing of cellars in the following decade have greatly minimized this traditional problem in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This tasting (along with similar ones I’ve done in the past) indicated that I’m a bigger fan of '89 wines, at least in the case of bottles that are relatively brett free, but both vintages produced some pretty fabulous wines from this appellation I regularly go to for sheer pleasure and deliciousness. For the group’s and my scoring, and further comments about the wines, see below. [You can hear the video clip of Harry on my website: http://www.rjonwine.com]
After the blindtasting session, Harry and Sasha Verhage (winemaker/owner of Eno Wines, and organizer of Harry’s visit the next day to Google) shared with us some Saxum wines that they had brought back from their visit down to Paso Robles early that day. All three of these bottles had been opened earlier in the day, and thereby received some air, which should have been to their benefit. I have never been of fan of Saxum wines, having found the several I’ve sampled to be over-concentrated, high alcohol and sometimes unbalanced fruit bombs (i.e., Parker-style wines), and I can’t for the life of me understand their relatively high scores, not just from RP, but also from others on CellarTracker. Oh well, more such wines for them then.
My TNs and group scoring
While the group is tasting through the usually eight (but on this night, nine) wines for our blindtasting, we don’t share comments on any particular wines, to avoid prejudicing others’ scoring of the wines. Once we all rank the wines in order of preference, we turn in those rankings to Ross, who calculates the group’s rankings, and numbers of first, second, third and last place votes, as noted below. After I entered my rankings in the scoring sheet that was sent around, I looked at how Harry ranked the wines, and was surprised to see that our rankings were quite similar. I remarked to him that he obviously preferred the more hedonistic CdPs, as do I. My top wine of the tasting was a particularly clean and brett-free version of the '89 Beaucastel, a wine I’ve enjoyed many times before, and that I picked out as a Beaucastel. I seem to recall that it was Harry’s favorite as well, but the group ranked it third. The '90 Beaucastel, which I also identified as Beau in the blindtasting, was my third favorite, and second for the group. My number two wine was the absolutely gorgeous 1989 Château de la Gardine Cuvée des Générations. As one learns from Harry’s book, this wine is a blend of 60% Grenache, from 100-year-old vines, with 20% Mourvèdre and 20% Syrah. It is aged for 14 to 18 months in 85% new barrels. The group’s #1 was the '90 Les Cailloux, which I only ranked seventh–finding it a little bretty, tight and rustic–but still scored 93 points, as all nine of our maturing CdPs were quite good.
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1990 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #1 (my #7) – 72 pts; 6 firsts, 4 seconds, 4 thirds, 1 last place – bricking medium red violet color; mature, earthy, tobacco, smoke, dried orange nose with a touch of brett; earthy, rustic, tobacco, mineral, tart plum palate, a little tight yet but very tasty; medium-plus finish (93 pts.) -
1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #2 (my #3) – 80 pts.; 4, 2, 3, 2 - bricking medium red violet color with thin clear meniscus; ethereal, sweet smoke, dried cherry, dried berry, spice box nose; tasty, ripe, hedonistic, dried berry, tart chocolate, charcoal, sweet tobacco palate; medium-plus finish 95+ points (easily guessed it as '90 Beau in this blindtasting) (95 pts.) -
1989 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #3 (my #1) – 88 pts.; 1, 5, 2, 1 - bricking medium red violet color with clear meniscus; nice charcoal, subtle garrigue, anise, smoke, dried berry, chocolate nose; lovely, youthful, dried berry, garrigue, anise, chocolate palate, a hedonistic delight; long finish (one of the cleaner, most brett-free, bottles of '89 I’ve tried) (97 pts.) -
1990 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #4 (my #5) – 93 pts.; 1, 1, 5, 0 - bricking medium red violet color; subtle roasted meat, beef jus, charcoal, tobacco nose; lovely, but a little tight and angular, tart black fruit, charcoal, dried berry, tobacco, mineral palate; long finish 93+ points (93 pts.) -
1990 M. Chapoutier Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Bernardine - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #5 (my #4) – 93 pts.; 4, 1, 3, 4 - medium cherry red color with pale meniscus; ginger cake, smoke, cigar box, orange spice nose; tasty, mature, remarkably complex, cigar box, smoke, roasted meat, dried cherry, mineral palate with firm, sweet tannins, needs 5-plus years; medium-plus finish 94+ points (much better, and more evolved, than the last bottle I tried a few years back) (94 pts.) -
1989 Château de la Gardine Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #6 (my #6) – 107 pts.; 2, 1, 1, 1 - bricking medium red violet color with pale meniscus and light, floating sediment; nice smoky, roasted meat, cigar box, dried berry nose; taty, maturing, smokey, spicy cherry, plum palate with refinement, has another 1 or 2 decades to go; medium-plus finish 93+ points (93 pts.) -
1989 Château de la Gardine Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée des Générations - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #7 (my #2) – 114 pts.; 0, 2, 2, 2 - bricking medium dark red violet color; charcoal, ripe and dried berry, dried cherry, spicy plum, licorice, sweet cigar box nose; tasty, rich, complex, youthful, dried berry, anise, sweet smoke, ripe black fruit, graphite palate, showing a fair amount of new oak, but still a hedonistic pleasure; long finish 96+ points (much, much better than a bretty and presumably poorly stored bottle I had a year and a half back) (96 pts.) -
1989 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #8 (my #8) – 120 pts.; 2, 2, 1, 5 - bricking medium dark red violet color; cherry vapor, dried cherry, garrigue, smoke, red plum, intriguing nose; tasty, most youthful, dried cherry, red plum, mineral palate with firm, sweet tannins; medium-plus finish 92+ points (92 pts.) -
1989 Château de la Font du Loup Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Group’s #9 (my #9) – 133 pts.; 0, 0, 1, 4 - bricking medium red color with pale meniscus; tobacco, cigar box, dried black fruit nose with a little brett; tangy, maturing, tobacco, charcoal, red plum, licorice palate, very traditional and rustic, with firm, mouth puckering tannins; medium-plus finish (91 pts.)
Saxum postlude
The '05 Heart Stone was the best of this line up. The '08 Bone Rock was an unbalanced, oaky, alcoholic mess.
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2005 Saxum Heart Stone Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Very dark red violet color; VA, very ripe berry, plum, sweet mint nose; ripe, concentrated, ripe red berry, oak, mint palate with heat; medium-plus finish (88 pts.) -
2003 Saxum Cuvée Rocket Block James Berry Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Opaque purple red violet color; VA, red berry, plum, baked plum nose; tight yet, sweet, ripe berry, black fruit, oak palate with heat; long finish (87 pts.) -
2008 Saxum Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Dark purple red violet color; big, oaky, boysenberry, baked berry, oak nose; concentrated, oak, baked berry palate, hard to drink; long finish (83% Syrah, 13% Mourvedre, 4% Grenache) (78 pts.)
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