TN: Wines from a trip to DC

[Dav1dZ]

• 2012 Domaine La Bérangeraie Cahors Cuvée Maurin - France, Southwest France, Cahors (3/31/2016)
  Surly, pissed off Cahors. Bitter tannin, dark purple color; tastes like asphalt and rosemary. At moments some blackberry fruit vaguely can be seen in the distance before the wall of tannin and structure clamps down. Who the hell knows, maybe this will be delicious in 20 years, but good god it’s shut down right now. Undrinkable. Charmingly Cahors.
• 2005 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône-Brézème (4/1/2016)
  Tasted double blind thanks to a generous colleague. I immediately guessed this as middle-aged Cote Rotie, with its blue-purple fruit, olive/stem aromatics, and medium body with lovely, lively acidity. Welp, someone finally got one over on me. Beautiful wine. (91 pts.)
• 2011 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône (3/30/2016)
  Ordered off a horrific wine list. This isn’t bad, though it’s surprisingly syrah/mourvedre dominated for a cheap CdR. This is dominated by the syrah component - shows some reduction, black pepper, a hint of mourvedre asphalt. The fruit is plummy and certainly doesn’t scream Grenache. Some pleasant herbiness. Acid a touch lowish which gives it an accessible texture. Not much tannin. Was a little too old world for some of the drinkers at the table but did the job for me. (87 pts.)

[CFu]

@DavidZ

[*]2005 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône-Brézème (4/1/2016)
Tasted double blind thanks to a generous colleague. I immediately guessed this as middle-aged Cote Rotie, with its blue-purple fruit, olive/stem aromatics, and medium body with lovely, lively acidity. Welp, someone finally got one over on me. Beautiful wine. (91 pts.)

April fools!

[John_Morris]

@DavidZ

• 2012 Domaine La Bérangeraie Cahors Cuvée Maurin - France, Southwest France, Cahors (3/31/2016)
  Surly, pissed off Cahors. Bitter tannin, dark purple color; tastes like asphalt and rosemary. At moments some blackberry fruit vaguely can be seen in the distance before the wall of tannin and structure clamps down. Who the hell knows, maybe this will be delicious in 20 years, but good god it’s shut down right now. Undrinkable. Charmingly Cahors.
• 2005 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône-Brézème (4/1/2016)
  Tasted double blind thanks to a generous colleague. I immediately guessed this as middle-aged Cote Rotie, with its blue-purple fruit, olive/stem aromatics, and medium body with lovely, lively acidity. Welp, someone finally got one over on me. Beautiful wine. (91 pts.)
• 2011 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône (3/30/2016)
  Ordered off a horrific wine list. This isn’t bad, though it’s surprisingly syrah/mourvedre dominated for a cheap CdR. This is dominated by the syrah component - shows some reduction, black pepper, a hint of mourvedre asphalt. The fruit is plummy and certainly doesn’t scream Grenache. Some pleasant herbiness. Acid a touch lowish which gives it an accessible texture. Not much tannin. Was a little too old world for some of the drinkers at the table but did the job for me. (87 pts.)

Ha. And I opened a 2005 Texier St. Gervais Cotes du Rhone this week that sucked. Fruitless, some hard tannins, and too much acid. Just hadn’t gotten around to posting.

In recent years, the Guigal CdR has been 50+% syrah, which is a shame I think. According to Guigal’s site, the 2011 is 60% syrah, 35% grenache and just 5% mourvedre. I believe that back before ~2000 or so, this was more like 33-33-33.

[Dav1dZ]

@John Morris

Ha. And I opened a 2005 Texier St. Gervais Cotes du Rhone this week that sucked. Fruitless, some hard tannins, and too much acid. Just hadn’t gotten around to posting.

In recent years, the Guigal CdR has been 50+% syrah, which is a shame I think. According to Guigal’s site, the 2011 is 60% syrah, 35% grenache and just 5% mourvedre. I believe that back before ~2000 or so, this was more like 33-33-33.

Welcome to the dark side, John.