Last night my value group met to taste thru some southern Rhone wines. The rules were that the wines need to be available on local shelves and cost between $20 and $40. BTW, 07’s have yet to make it to the shelves here. All wines were served blind and consumed over 3 hours. Breads and cheeses were served. All in all, a good tasting, with some nice values that will reward short term cellaring. I suspect many of these wines can be found for much less in the free world making them attractive QPRs.
Our host Chris started us off with a blind white:
2006 Kleebourg Pinot Gris Prestige
Deep golden in color, slight copper coloring, clear and bright. The nose has seltzer, limes and lemon peel. A bit of almonds. Slightly sweet, slightly flabby with bitter almonds on the palate, especially on the finish. It showed more sweet with air. Nice way to start a tasting. 50+3+12+16+6=87
The reds:
2005 Perrin & Fils Gigondas La Grale
Purple/ruby in color, mostly opaque and bright. The nose has cherries and a bit of varnish. On the palate, black cherries. This is light, smooth to drink and easy going. The groups last place vote, I thought is pleasant but should be closer to $10. 50+3+11+16+5=85
2005 Notre Dame Les Pallieres Gigondas
I liked this much more than the group. Purple in color, mostly opaque and bright. The nose has black raspberries and some pepper. Juicy texture. On the palate, this is simple and easy to drink but with a nice peppery, black raspberry quality. Some tannins on the backend making me think this has some room for 3 to 5 year development. 50+4+12+17+6=89
2005 Domaine Saint Sifferain CdP
Purple in color, slight ruby hues, shimmering bright. Mostly opaque and bright. The nose is slightly musty, slightly acetate and some dark cherries. With air, the nose shows better. Nice texture, raspberries and bitter cherries on the palate. Firm tannins. With air, this really improved. No blockbuster but a solid wine that should improve. 50+5+12+16+6=89
2006 Domaine La Bouissiere Vacqueyras La Ponche
Purple/ruby in color, mostly clear and bright. The nose has cherries and raspberries. Juicy texture. Tannic. On the palate, black cherries with some menthol/anis note. Some heat and a long finish. The groups #2. Improved all night. 50+4+13+16+6=89
2005 Paul Autard CdP
Purple in color with some ruby swirls. The nose is hot, alcoholic and disjointed. With an hour or more of air, it settled down to show black cherries, spice and leather. Cherries and dark cherries on the palate. Heat on the finish, but that too disappeared with air. Not a great CdP, but very good and should improve for 5 to 10 years in the cellar. The groups WOTN. 50+4+12+17+6=89
2005 Alain Jaume Clos de Sixte Lirac
Inky purple in color. The nose is tight but with some air it improves showing cherries and raspberries. On the palate, this is sweet, thick and port-like. Not bad per se, but not what I was expecting. A bit raisined too. I suspect this bottle saw some higher temps at some point as it did not match my prior notes on this wine. Maybe it’s in an odd phase. With air, it did seem to bounce back and settle down showing more cherries and less heat. I liked it more than the group. 50+4+12+16+6=88
2003 Domaine D’Loratoire St. Martin Haut-Constas Cairanne Cotes du Rhone Villages
Ruby in color, slight dark brown hues. Sweet black raspberries on the nose. Tannic. Bitter raspberries and very raisined fruit. Disjointed and showing alcohol. The group liked this far more than I. I was not surprised to see it as an 03. This represented the things I did not like about some of the wines from that year. 50+4+10+13+3=80