TN: Most of the 2015 Northern Rhones worth a damn, blind

WINE TALK
41

… is one of the reasons why I like drinking N. Rhones with Adrian, as I don’t ever have to drink oaky bullshit.

42

Clape, Chave, Jamet: good winemakers

You: bad palet.

43

Of course not…!! [rofl.gif]

44

The meek inherit nothing.

[cheers.gif]

45

Thanks Adrian. Of the long line up I only had the Clape at it was nice. More open and rounded that I was expecting.

46

Epic.

47

Did Guigal use as much new oak on the older (60’s/70’s) LaLas?

48

BTW, I had a bottle of 2015 Jaboulet La Maison Bleu and it was quite nice. Nice enough to tempt me to buy few. The oak appeared to be in check. It looked well made. A touch smooth but not too polished or over-worked.

I had Jaboulet from the early 80s to early 90’s and none since. Thus, I was tasting a Jaboulet after a long hiatus.

BTW, our wine group had a Cote Rotie tasting last week. All wines served blind.
1989 Patrick Jasmin
1987 Bernard Burgaud
1990 Chapoutier ‘La Mordoree’
1983 Emile Champet
1999 Bernard Burgaud
?? Patrick and Christoff Bonnefond
1999 Delas La Landonne
1999 Tardieu Laurent
2001 Ogier
2006 Guigal d’Ampuis
2009 Guigal d’Ampuis
2010 Guigal d’Ampuis

FWIW, the Guigals looked very good. The oak ( am I am averse to too much oak showing) looked well balanced.
However., I am sure many might find even that much oak off putting as every ones threshold is quite different.

49

Sanjay – I’m wondering with respect to your CR lineup whether the preference for the Guigals was due to their relative youth versus tolerance of oak. For example, I wonder if you would have enjoyed the Guigals as much if they were next to, say, a Champet of comparable vintage.

I had previously had a bottle of the 15 Chave Hermitage separately and quite enjoyed it, but the oak really pokes out when you’re tasting it next to low-oak treatment wines. (I suspect that may be one reason for the poor showing for me, label bias and deference the first time around being the more obvious reason).

50

16 wines in a row scored exactly 93 points? Weird. The descriptions seem to read differently. Something is amiss?

51

[dash1.gif] Oh boy here we go again…

(Jeff search any other TN note thread started by Adrian and the answer is sure to be there)

52

No, not all/exactly. Adrian scored the Paris Geynale 93-minus.

1 Like
53

When reading Adrian’s notes - don’t mind the scores, just read the descriptions. His tasting notes are truly how he feels about the wine… the scores are useless.

Long story… no need to rehash it every thread.

54

Got it.

55

Thank you for the notes

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Difficult to answer your question Adrian.
The older CR’s were all over the place; few lovely and many other carried too much funk. And one was clearly ‘don’t put in your mouth’ category.

The Guigal were in contrast very fresh and clean . Very different stylistically. The point I was trying to make was despite tasting younger and unevolved Guigal next to older CR’s with less oak in their make up , no one opinied that the Guigal were oak influenced. There were 10 of us tasting these wines. Many who have been exposed to Rhône for 40+ years and who like traditional makers

57

Never had nor seen any of the Cave de Tain’s wines so I’ll look out for them. They won’t get an a priori pass without at least some experience!

Sorrel was mentioned above as worthy, and indeed Faurie is pretty worthy as well. Never had Yann Chave, another to look out for. I am partial to old Vallouit Hermitage.

58

Faurie makes wonderful Hermitage.

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I like Faurie and would also add Marc Sorrel. I don’t think he was mentioned either.

60

It perplexes me why Sorrel and Faurie Hermitage aren’t more hyped in this explosion of interest in the Northern Rhône. They’re so good.