Cornas & St Joseph Dinner

Camino
Tasted Saturday, May 14, 2016 by lozatron with 402 views

Introduction

Lovely dinner with lovely people at a lovely restaurant. Thanks to Chris for organizing and Alan and Jim for providing most of the wines.

Flight 1 - Delicious surprise white to start (1 Note)

  • 2006 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc 89 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Popped and poured. Started off a bit muted - wondered if there was anything there. Opened up - became quite delicious - big bodied and voluptuous but enough acidity underneath it to make it worthy of attention. Fruit - ripe fruit - apricots perhaps...

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Flight 2 - The Gonons (2 Notes)

  • 2006 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph 90 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph

    Was expecting to be politely bemused about all the fuss. Lovely stuff - precise, good acidity and structure - maybe a whiff of Cornas blood and iron but by no means a Cornas wannabe. Based on this - does St Joseph deserve to sit on the second rank of N Rhone below Hermitage, Cote Rotie and Cornas? Probably yes but...excellent wine and worthy of the price tag.

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  • 2006 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph

    Clearly a step in depth above the regular bottling - more better deeper tastier. Some at the table preferred to the 06 and 00 Allemands - I didn't but I could see what they were on about. Happily ones opinions on this wine matter naught because you can't buy it anyway...

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Flight 3 - 05/06 (2 Notes)

  • 2005 Marcel Juge Cornas 90 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Started off quite muted - blind I wouldn't have said Cornas and I'm not 100% sure I would have said Syrah. Over time it opened up (or I just slowed down to appreciate it) - ethereal, fragrant, as one fellow diner described it like a Burgundy made in the northern rhone - perhaps a Roumier villages Chambolle...the discussion moved to stem inclusion and I could certainly taste it - although one wonders if one would have had other people not mentioned it...

    All in all - a lovely wine, overshadowed perhaps by its shoutier siblings. I wonder if it would have made an even better impression if it were given the chance to perform alone...

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  • 2006 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas Flawed

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Started off serious but seemed to peter out. Faulty - heat damaged perhaps?

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Flight 4 - A brace of 06 Allemands (2 Notes)

  • 2006 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot 95 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Goose bumps. Really delicious - sexy, bracing wine. A little high-toned shrillness, some red fruit, with the blood and iron beneath it of a good cornas. Honestly I was expecting this to be too young to enjoy like this. Perhaps a lucky bottle, perhaps just the right combination of food, perhaps the excellent company - but really, a special wine.

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  • 2006 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard 91 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Lovely stuff - elegant, cornas-y, Allemand-y. Clearly great potential - enjoyable now but should probably be set aside for a decade or two.

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Flight 5 - 01/00 (2 Notes)

  • 2000 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Last one down. Sad. Leaky cork - have learned not to read anything into that. A whiff of animale but very much in check. Not too cloudy - the double decant must have helped. Vibrant fruit still - crunchy acidity, just everything I love about Cornas. In retrospect I may have loved the 06 more, but possibly just because of the surprise of how ready and delicious it was...

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  • 2001 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas Flawed

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Muted, too muted. I couldn't detect TCA but wonder if there was low level cork taint or some other fault. Shame.

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Closing

The food matched the wines very well. Disappointing showing on a couple of bottles but I don't think we were particularly unlucky. I'm clearly about the last to discover Gonon but...jolly nice stuff, and I see what the fuss is about!

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