I've had a few other bottles that I didn't note in the last year, but they were all great and this is maybe the best of all. The mouthfeel is all velvet Syrah with dark fruit wrapped in savory notes. There is still tannin and I really love the shape and structure. This is great now and might even get better. I did decant it for sediment though, I hope Eric is OK with that.
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Another bottle, another confusing result. Mostly, I haven't liked my bottles of the Texier wines, this or the Brezème, with a few notable exceptions. But at some point of the bottle, I'll get a glass that seems to be tremendous. Then the next one seems excessively acidic and laced with volatile acids. Eric is well-liked and respected, he seems sincere and very knowledgable, and he gave a great interview on Dalton's radio show. So I don't want to do him a disservice. But I can't get the hang of these wines in any consistent way.
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Paired with grilled salmon w dill-mayo sauce, fava beans, Japanese sweet potatoes. Spice/sweetness good against these flavors, tannins soft enough not to overpower the salmon. Finished the bottle with chicken legs in mushroom sauce, eggplant. Equally good
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A glass of liquid violets. Floral, small dark berries, very cool with great acidity. Lean, juicy, super delicious right now. Fantastic wine in its own right. Bravo.
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Over five years since my last bottle. This is showing a softer palate, wider, less taut than in the past, still blue/black fruited, with savories and complexities starting to emerge: salted meats, roast beef, olives, and a light funk. The tannins are breaking down and the wine is heading into a secondary phase that is quite savory and enjoyable. Even better on the second night, where the wine attains better focus. Really quite good.
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I'm with Salil. This is starting to get really delicious, especially if you give it a bit of air. With some food, the structure of the wine is subsumed and the whole is more than the sum of parts.
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The bright red fruit and florality I remembered on release are still there, but it's showing so much more complexity now. It's more savoury than I recall with lots of smoky, briny, and lightly meaty flavours framing the fruit, and the finish is all earth and mineral. It's still very young and still showing a bit of grainy tannin on the back end, but it's absolutely thrilling now. What a fantastic wine.
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P&p; drinking pretty well right away, but saving 2/3 of the bottle for tomorrow to see what happens. Day 1: Smells good, with some general depth to it - olive, darkish fruit/violet, moist earth, and touches of licorice and bay laurel. Good acidity. Tannins are firm but fairly smooth. Some fleshiness, without being heavy. Tasty/moreish, characterful, enjoyable wine. Seems very cellarable, but not crazy to drink now.
Day 2 (refilled 500 ml bottle refrigerated overnight and brought back to temp): Really good, with more salinity, stoniness, and depth.
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Great bottle. Meaty savory aromas along with olives dominate the nose, very characteristic Northern Rhône nose. On the palate there’s an expressive black fruit with good concentration, but there’s also nice acidity keeping things lifted and fresh. Some tannins are apparent but they’re not particularly rough. This is fine to drink now but has all the bones necessary to age too.
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Served blind. Ripe and dark, opaque in the glass, with a blue-fruited ripe sweetness to the nose and a fair amount of gritty tannin. Some savory qualities but no pepper reduction that to me indicates Syrah; we thought this might be a Mourvedre-based CA Rhone blend, in fact it reminded me a bit of an Edmunds St John Rocks & Gravel with its grapey upfront sweetness + good structure. Much better for me on day 2, when the sweetness largely recedes and the more savory, earthy character comes out more. Certainly less backward than when I tasted this six years ago, but there's still plenty of material here for further aging.
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Decanted for 1.5 hours then brought to dinner and given a little more air. Very tight and structured still, only a sense of salinity and a little smoke emerged. Probably should have been decanted for a whole day. Oops.
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Not a bad wine, but it was served next to the 2010 Gonon St Joseph which is a much better wine. Starts out with a floral, red-fruited nose. Promising. Nice palate as well, dark fruit, elegant, olive marks and good acidity. A bit short, hollow on the back end of the palate and pop-corn marks. Not sure how far this will go. At home with the boys.
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Deep red. Fleshy style with forest fruit, eucalyptus and some leather. Intense, youthful and raw. Mature tannins. Good lenght. Gains complexity on day 2. Nice upside.
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Just like my last bottle, except that was decanted a couple of hours before serving and it showed more mineral and savoury depth on the palate beneath all the fresh red fruit, black olive, and savoury meaty flavours. Remarkably light on its feet with plenty of acidity giving it lift and a very elegant palate presence, and I'm glad I have more to follow over the next few years.
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Drinking very well for such a young wine! Somewhat muddled nose of red fruit, herbs, and meat. Medium-bodied, with good, resolved, but chewy tannin, and very nice, lasting acid. Vey mineral, with a bit of animal. Very nice length showing structure and minerality. Very nice. 91-92
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Poured alongside the Brézème Vieille Serine. While that was rather reserved, this was showing great right off the bat. Smoky, leathery, earthy, and lavender aromas leading into a palate with lots of really fresh, vibrant red and dark berried fruit and black olive flavours. It's medium weight and very graceful on the palate, but the flavours are intense and long, and this is all too easy to drink.
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First bottle from a case of 12. This is terrific. Dark purple hue, beautiful floral nose with marks of smoked meat and olives. Needs air to open up but once it does it shows blue/black fruit with meaty notes, smoke and olives. Local character, a mix of Côte Rotie and Cornas really. Lovely acidicty underpins the sense of lightness and freshness even if there's plenty of material here. Looking forward to following this over the next several years.
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Very good on night 1, though not spectacular. Leftovers the following day (fortunately more than half the bottle) showed quite a transformation, with an array of black olives, smoke, lavender, and other floral and herbal notes framing a core of very fresh, juicy red and dark berried fruit. There's some fine grained tannin on the back end, but much of the apparent structure seems to come from the acidity, which gives it a really light, refreshing feel on the palate.
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Clear. Clean. Youthfull. Fruit forward, fruit driven. Impressive intensity for the level and price, not very complex though. Touch of minerality as well. Balanced and fresh on the palate, fruit driven, ripe tannins, maybe a touch crude. But a good wine for the price and level.
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This is nicely approachable already, especially with some air. Broad, juicy blue/black fruit flavors accompanied by herbal and savory notes. Tannins lurk beneath, but aren't intrusive. I enjoyed the juicy, slightly fleshy quality to the fruit here - it's friendly and inviting rather than overly austere.
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Dammit, I didn't buy enough of this. I liked the 2009 but it wasn't at this level. I remember Eric posting about this site before the '09 (debut vintage) came out and comparing the terroir to Cornas, but to me this wine is more reminiscent of a Cote-Rotie. It's brimming with personality right from the pop of the cork with a touch of the textbook Northern Rhone cured meat element, but perhaps even stronger than that is the minerality which basically feels like someone stirred some pulverized granite in here. It cuts a slender figure and the tannic structure is neither rustic (on one end of the spectrum) nor soft (on the other)--it's satisfyingly edgy, but it doesn't have the effect of drying out or even tightening up the wine mainly because the fruit is so bold, almost piercing in its concentration. If it wasn't so lean and precise it would seem almost sweet, except that it has an acute wild-berry zing and an almost saline savoriness on account of that meaty element. The bright magenta hue in the rim of glass is sort of like a Beaujolais (though it's deeper at the core), which nicely forecasts what you're getting here, vibrancy and richness at the same time (with a whole lot of personality too). I figured this would be a great wine but I didn't expect it to be so great so soon.
Good, vibrant energy, lighter than I'd expect in good syrah, but this impression may reflect my limited experience with suchlike varietals more than anything else. Drank over three days, and the last glass, imbibed cold, was very good. I'm tempted to say you can see Gourgonnier's influence on Eric in these wines: there's a similar elegance about them. Did I mention good energy?
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I pulled this from the cellar because a bottle of the 2010 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème Vieilles Vignes Domaine de Pergault last month (at Bar Boulud with Lindsey T.) was so soft and unstructured. This is dark as night. Olives show early, along with lovely blue-black fruit, seems very deep and dark. With air, the sides are sleek, the tannins seem softer up front, but there is firm structure and acidity here that causes the palate to go long; salty notes to the palate, olives, very Rhone Syrah. With time, the wine takes on a grainy texture, blue/black olivey fruit, lots of acidity, long finish with a hint of pepper. Very pleasing.
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Nice wine, surely doesn't suck. Herbal and savory, good clean fruit profile shaded towards the dark. Super tannic and tight upon uncorking but opened nicely in the glass with 20 mins of air.
Not the same fireworks as my first bottle, but still a delicious Syrah. Great blend of smokey, cracked pepper, and floral aromas. Meaty and salty on the tight palate that took a good few hours to open up. Lots of concentrated fruit, but ample freshness. I really need to let this sleep a couple more years before trying another.
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2010 Northern Rhones (+treats) at Ross' place: Tasted 1.5 blind. Blind Rhone #2. I knew this was a 2010 Rhone tasting, but I know very little about the producers. Very dark, pretty with blue-black fruit. Much darker than #1. Really young on the palate: pure and dark. Very concentrated.
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2010 Northern Rhones tasted blind (Ross', NYC): A really spicy, peppery aroma at first leading into a palate full of very fresh red berried fruit. Later on with a lot more air it turns more savoury, but doesn't show quite the complexity and aromatic depth that it had on release.
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Broderen har med seg litt rester som har stått åpen i 3 dagar. Fantastisk vin, mørk plomme som fersk portvin. Litt vilt i ettersmaken :-D. Deilig vin denne kan vi godt kjøpe noen flasker av.
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Pretty stunning clarity and purity of fruit....elegant and balanced -- great acidity, impressive finish. Not much complexity at this point, expect that to develop with time...really impressive. Revisit in 5-7 years.
Very nice, but this is only giving a glipse of its full potential. Blue/black fruit with occasional hints of red raspberry, lifted by high acidity. I was expecting a full, plush wine showing a lot of baby fat, but this is showing leaner and more compact than I expected, and certainly more restrained than the fuller, plumper 2009 Rhone Syrahs I've had. No degradation over night, the wine on the second night shows its structure, with the tannin coming across as rather dry, and the fruit seems to have receeded. This particular bottle was the first bottle from a case delivered last week and then taken on a flight, so it may be suffering from shock to a certain degree. Right now, this is clearly a wine to hold. In Hallendale.
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Clearly young, and fairly closed for a while, but starting to open up and drink well with about 2 hours in a decanter. Deep rocky earth, cherry, mild licorice. Has some nice natural wildness to it. Firm but smooth tannins. Good acidity keeps it from being heavy. Tasty and interesting. Deserved more air or age - I look forward to trying this again.
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Fruta proveniente de vinhas com mais de 65 anos de idade desta variedade indígena de Syrah, conhecida localmente por Serine. Colheita manual, fermentado com os engaces por 30 meses em ½ muids de 10 anos de idade.
Cor rubi intensa,mais para o roxo que para o vermelho, nariz intenso de flores, amoras frescas, carne crua e pimenta do reino. Médio corpo, fruta super nítida, acidez linda e salinidade deliciosa, com toques de sangue.
Tem um estilo que realmente remete ao norte do Rhone, e ficou uma beleza acompanhando rabada com agrião. Pra comprar de caixa e guardar por pelo menos 10 anos, antes que o preço suba.
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Consistent with previous notes. Maybe a touch more tannic grip here than my other bottles showed, but it remains stunning. Need to bury the other bottles.
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Was tight on opening with a pronounced tannic clamp on the finish, but an hour in the decanter and all sorts of goodness came forth. Great floral aromatics, along with black olives, smokey grilled meats, and some iron-like minerality. So balanced and pure in the mouth, with flavors really well delineated and fresh. It will be fun to track this wine's evolution over time. The best syrah I've had in ages and a tremendous value at 30-some bucks.
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This wine wasn't pure, elegant and sexy when I opened it. I sat here drinking it, referencing Zach and Salil's notes thinking, "wtf is wrong with me...". Fastforward to hour 4 and things are starting to make sense. The aromas have become more floral and while the dark fruit is still there in spades, they're augmented by iodine and iron notes that are really nice. Palate has this wildness to it with gamey flavors that mingle with softer floral-driven notes that soften the masculine core. I see good things ahead for this wine.
I was very curious to open this, as the notes were fairly polarizing on whether it's enjoyable now or not. I found myself more in the "completely shut down and not that enjoyable today" camp.
However, at times it would offer glimpses of how good this could be - flashes of beautiful dark red fruit. The texture is quite nice, but the nose never really opened up. I'm intrigued enough to buy three more and see how it evolves.
Thoughts on when to open again?
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Pretty much what Salil said. Super pure and elegant, deep and dark Syrah fruit with great florality and a stony persistence. Very elegant and balanced overall. The tannins are grainy and plentiful, and this really needs time to show its best, but what's showing now augurs well for the future.
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Just like the last bottle I had. Beautiful when popped and poured, and flat out amazing after several hours of air. This is just amazingly pure, elegant Syrah.
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There's good potential here but on pop-and-pour this was showing immensely shut down and backward, with waves and waves of fuzzy drying tannin. I think there's some interesting stuff behind the tannin as there's a really lovely pure-fruited finish, but it's hard to say right now. Lock it up and throw away the key.
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Opened at 2 pm to give it some air. First impression then with a few small sips were that this is a beautiful, pure and fragrant expression of classic Northern Rhone Syrah.
A few hours later, after it's had some time to breathe, it's utterly jawdropping. I am awed that a wine with this finesse and sense of seamlessness is still available for around $35. (I can think of very few examples from Côte-Rôtie or other more exalted and more expensive appellations that have this sort of fragrance, purity and elegance.) There's fresh berried fruit framed by a bright high toned florality, savoury earthiness and gentler meaty and saline elements, all conveyed with a delicate touch and amazing finesse on the palate. Bright acids keep it very fresh and lively, and the flavours linger long after each sip. Spectacular wine. Thanks Eric.
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6/25/2023 - Rupert wrote:
This was heavy, pruney and too Southern-Rhonish for me
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11/1/2022 - cweiss Likes this wine:
Lovely Syrah nose and fruit on the palate to back it up. Acidity a bit noticeable at the end, but generally well-balanced. Drink or hold.
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8/28/2021 - vulgar little monkey wrote: 93 Points
I've had a few other bottles that I didn't note in the last year, but they were all great and this is maybe the best of all. The mouthfeel is all velvet Syrah with dark fruit wrapped in savory notes. There is still tannin and I really love the shape and structure. This is great now and might even get better. I did decant it for sediment though, I hope Eric is OK with that.
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5/1/2021 - fitzi wrote:
Another bottle, another confusing result. Mostly, I haven't liked my bottles of the Texier wines, this or the Brezème, with a few notable exceptions. But at some point of the bottle, I'll get a glass that seems to be tremendous. Then the next one seems excessively acidic and laced with volatile acids. Eric is well-liked and respected, he seems sincere and very knowledgable, and he gave a great interview on Dalton's radio show. So I don't want to do him a disservice. But I can't get the hang of these wines in any consistent way.
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11/6/2020 - Egatniv Likes this wine: 92 Points
Paired with grilled salmon w dill-mayo sauce, fava beans, Japanese sweet potatoes. Spice/sweetness good against these flavors, tannins soft enough not to overpower the salmon.
Finished the bottle with chicken legs in mushroom sauce, eggplant. Equally good
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8/19/2020 - cweiss wrote:
Pretty Syrah fruit, forceful acidity. Lots to offer. Better the next day
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6/25/2020 - fitzi wrote:
Drinking beautifully. Delicious.
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3/14/2020 - pbaek wrote:
A glass of liquid violets. Floral, small dark berries, very cool with great acidity. Lean, juicy, super delicious right now. Fantastic wine in its own right. Bravo.
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2/18/2020 - LW31 wrote:
Delicious. Pure, touch rustic. Good lift. Hard to think of a better cotes du rhone.
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12/29/2019 - MartyL Likes this wine:
Consistent with prior note. Feels like this has a lot in reserve too, which bodes well for the cellar.
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12/27/2019 - FjordogFjell wrote: 89 Points
Til indrefilet av rein. Trenger litt tid før den åpner opp. Bjørnebær pen vanilje , fin balanse. 1 dag i åpen flaske: Fin aromatisk , balansert
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10/1/2019 - Pknut wrote:
Over five years since my last bottle. This is showing a softer palate, wider, less taut than in the past, still blue/black fruited, with savories and complexities starting to emerge: salted meats, roast beef, olives, and a light funk. The tannins are breaking down and the wine is heading into a secondary phase that is quite savory and enjoyable. Even better on the second night, where the wine attains better focus. Really quite good.
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8/11/2019 - vulgar little monkey wrote: 93 Points
I'm with Salil. This is starting to get really delicious, especially if you give it a bit of air. With some food, the structure of the wine is subsumed and the whole is more than the sum of parts.
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6/5/2019 - salil wrote: 94 Points
The bright red fruit and florality I remembered on release are still there, but it's showing so much more complexity now. It's more savoury than I recall with lots of smoky, briny, and lightly meaty flavours framing the fruit, and the finish is all earth and mineral. It's still very young and still showing a bit of grainy tannin on the back end, but it's absolutely thrilling now. What a fantastic wine.
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6/2/2019 - Beerzebub Likes this wine:
P&p; drinking pretty well right away, but saving 2/3 of the bottle for tomorrow to see what happens. Day 1: Smells good, with some general depth to it - olive, darkish fruit/violet, moist earth, and touches of licorice and bay laurel. Good acidity. Tannins are firm but fairly smooth. Some fleshiness, without being heavy. Tasty/moreish, characterful, enjoyable wine. Seems very cellarable, but not crazy to drink now.
Day 2 (refilled 500 ml bottle refrigerated overnight and brought back to temp): Really good, with more salinity, stoniness, and depth.
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11/17/2018 - EhrlichDY Likes this wine:
Hi acid and super fresh and laden with crunchy stony flavors. Approachable now but this will continue to age gracefully for many years.
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10/24/2018 - MartyL Likes this wine: 93 Points
Great bottle. Meaty savory aromas along with olives dominate the nose, very characteristic Northern Rhône nose. On the palate there’s an expressive black fruit with good concentration, but there’s also nice acidity keeping things lifted and fresh. Some tannins are apparent but they’re not particularly rough. This is fine to drink now but has all the bones necessary to age too.
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5/17/2018 - coremill wrote: 89 Points
Served blind. Ripe and dark, opaque in the glass, with a blue-fruited ripe sweetness to the nose and a fair amount of gritty tannin. Some savory qualities but no pepper reduction that to me indicates Syrah; we thought this might be a Mourvedre-based CA Rhone blend, in fact it reminded me a bit of an Edmunds St John Rocks & Gravel with its grapey upfront sweetness + good structure. Much better for me on day 2, when the sweetness largely recedes and the more savory, earthy character comes out more. Certainly less backward than when I tasted this six years ago, but there's still plenty of material here for further aging.
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2/17/2018 - rhit wrote:
Decanted for 1.5 hours then brought to dinner and given a little more air. Very tight and structured still, only a sense of salinity and a little smoke emerged. Probably should have been decanted for a whole day. Oops.
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1/28/2018 - Rupert wrote: flawed
Corked
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1/28/2018 - Rupert wrote:
Quite tight. Olives and blackberries. The texture of a top claret. Hints at depths to come.
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6/27/2017 - pbaek wrote:
Not a bad wine, but it was served next to the 2010 Gonon St Joseph which is a much better wine. Starts out with a floral, red-fruited nose. Promising. Nice palate as well, dark fruit, elegant, olive marks and good acidity. A bit short, hollow on the back end of the palate and pop-corn marks. Not sure how far this will go. At home with the boys.
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9/23/2016 - asheio wrote: 88 Points
Deep red. Fleshy style with forest fruit, eucalyptus and some leather. Intense, youthful and raw. Mature tannins. Good lenght. Gains complexity on day 2. Nice upside.
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7/1/2016 - Rupert wrote:
Smooth, brambly, some smoke - very attractive
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4/29/2016 - salil wrote: 92 Points
Just like my last bottle, except that was decanted a couple of hours before serving and it showed more mineral and savoury depth on the palate beneath all the fresh red fruit, black olive, and savoury meaty flavours. Remarkably light on its feet with plenty of acidity giving it lift and a very elegant palate presence, and I'm glad I have more to follow over the next few years.
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4/29/2016 - indiscriminate palate wrote: 91 Points
Drinking very well for such a young wine! Somewhat muddled nose of red fruit, herbs, and meat. Medium-bodied, with good, resolved, but chewy tannin, and very nice, lasting acid. Vey mineral, with a bit of animal. Very nice length showing structure and minerality. Very nice. 91-92
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3/5/2016 - salil wrote: 92 Points
Poured alongside the Brézème Vieille Serine. While that was rather reserved, this was showing great right off the bat. Smoky, leathery, earthy, and lavender aromas leading into a palate with lots of really fresh, vibrant red and dark berried fruit and black olive flavours. It's medium weight and very graceful on the palate, but the flavours are intense and long, and this is all too easy to drink.
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1/18/2016 - pbaek wrote:
First bottle from a case of 12. This is terrific. Dark purple hue, beautiful floral nose with marks of smoked meat and olives. Needs air to open up but once it does it shows blue/black fruit with meaty notes, smoke and olives. Local character, a mix of Côte Rotie and Cornas really. Lovely acidicty underpins the sense of lightness and freshness even if there's plenty of material here. Looking forward to following this over the next several years.
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8/25/2015 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Very good on night 1, though not spectacular. Leftovers the following day (fortunately more than half the bottle) showed quite a transformation, with an array of black olives, smoke, lavender, and other floral and herbal notes framing a core of very fresh, juicy red and dark berried fruit. There's some fine grained tannin on the back end, but much of the apparent structure seems to come from the acidity, which gives it a really light, refreshing feel on the palate.
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6/5/2015 - Rupert wrote: 91 Points
Thick, brambly syrah, juicily approachable now, but with a weight that suggests future grandeur
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4/25/2015 - cweiss wrote:
Vecchia Roma. Purple. Exciting nose. Young. Promising!
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2/12/2015 - jtech wrote:
Clear.
Clean. Youthfull. Fruit forward, fruit driven. Impressive intensity for the level and price, not very complex though. Touch of minerality as well.
Balanced and fresh on the palate, fruit driven, ripe tannins, maybe a touch crude. But a good wine for the price and level.
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11/23/2014 - DSP Likes this wine: 91 Points
This is nicely approachable already, especially with some air. Broad, juicy blue/black fruit flavors accompanied by herbal and savory notes. Tannins lurk beneath, but aren't intrusive. I enjoyed the juicy, slightly fleshy quality to the fruit here - it's friendly and inviting rather than overly austere.
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11/10/2014 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 96 Points
Dammit, I didn't buy enough of this. I liked the 2009 but it wasn't at this level. I remember Eric posting about this site before the '09 (debut vintage) came out and comparing the terroir to Cornas, but to me this wine is more reminiscent of a Cote-Rotie. It's brimming with personality right from the pop of the cork with a touch of the textbook Northern Rhone cured meat element, but perhaps even stronger than that is the minerality which basically feels like someone stirred some pulverized granite in here. It cuts a slender figure and the tannic structure is neither rustic (on one end of the spectrum) nor soft (on the other)--it's satisfyingly edgy, but it doesn't have the effect of drying out or even tightening up the wine mainly because the fruit is so bold, almost piercing in its concentration. If it wasn't so lean and precise it would seem almost sweet, except that it has an acute wild-berry zing and an almost saline savoriness on account of that meaty element. The bright magenta hue in the rim of glass is sort of like a Beaujolais (though it's deeper at the core), which nicely forecasts what you're getting here, vibrancy and richness at the same time (with a whole lot of personality too). I figured this would be a great wine but I didn't expect it to be so great so soon.
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10/7/2014 - fitzi wrote:
Good, vibrant energy, lighter than I'd expect in good syrah, but this impression may reflect my limited experience with suchlike varietals more than anything else. Drank over three days, and the last glass, imbibed cold, was very good. I'm tempted to say you can see Gourgonnier's influence on Eric in these wines: there's a similar elegance about them. Did I mention good energy?
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6/26/2014 - Pknut wrote:
I pulled this from the cellar because a bottle of the 2010 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème Vieilles Vignes Domaine de Pergault last month (at Bar Boulud with Lindsey T.) was so soft and unstructured. This is dark as night. Olives show early, along with lovely blue-black fruit, seems very deep and dark. With air, the sides are sleek, the tannins seem softer up front, but there is firm structure and acidity here that causes the palate to go long; salty notes to the palate, olives, very Rhone Syrah. With time, the wine takes on a grainy texture, blue/black olivey fruit, lots of acidity, long finish with a hint of pepper. Very pleasing.
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4/11/2014 - diggydan wrote: 91 Points
Nice wine, surely doesn't suck. Herbal and savory, good clean fruit profile shaded towards the dark. Super tannic and tight upon uncorking but opened nicely in the glass with 20 mins of air.
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12/11/2013 - Billigan Likes this wine: 92 Points
Not the same fireworks as my first bottle, but still a delicious Syrah. Great blend of smokey, cracked pepper, and floral aromas. Meaty and salty on the tight palate that took a good few hours to open up. Lots of concentrated fruit, but ample freshness. I really need to let this sleep a couple more years before trying another.
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10/30/2013 - lolo66 wrote:
elegant, full bodied, i got a nice melange of dark berry fruit that was fresh and lively along with equal parts stony minerals. Delicious.
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10/8/2013 - Seth Rosenberg Likes this wine:
2010 Northern Rhones (+treats) at Ross' place: Tasted 1.5 blind. Blind Rhone #2. I knew this was a 2010 Rhone tasting, but I know very little about the producers. Very dark, pretty with blue-black fruit. Much darker than #1. Really young on the palate: pure and dark. Very concentrated.
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10/8/2013 - salil wrote: 91 Points
2010 Northern Rhones tasted blind (Ross', NYC): A really spicy, peppery aroma at first leading into a palate full of very fresh red berried fruit. Later on with a lot more air it turns more savoury, but doesn't show quite the complexity and aromatic depth that it had on release.
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9/2/2013 - FjordogFjell wrote: 90 Points
Broderen har med seg litt rester som har stått åpen i 3 dagar. Fantastisk vin, mørk plomme som fersk portvin. Litt vilt i ettersmaken :-D. Deilig vin denne kan vi godt kjøpe noen flasker av.
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3/19/2013 - tdelorme wrote:
Pretty stunning clarity and purity of fruit....elegant and balanced -- great acidity, impressive finish. Not much complexity at this point, expect that to develop with time...really impressive. Revisit in 5-7 years.
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3/13/2013 - ktrh Likes this wine: 89 Points
Needs air, but opens up to become a stunningly good young Syrah.
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3/8/2013 - Pknut wrote:
Very nice, but this is only giving a glipse of its full potential. Blue/black fruit with occasional hints of red raspberry, lifted by high acidity. I was expecting a full, plush wine showing a lot of baby fat, but this is showing leaner and more compact than I expected, and certainly more restrained than the fuller, plumper 2009 Rhone Syrahs I've had. No degradation over night, the wine on the second night shows its structure, with the tannin coming across as rather dry, and the fruit seems to have receeded. This particular bottle was the first bottle from a case delivered last week and then taken on a flight, so it may be suffering from shock to a certain degree. Right now, this is clearly a wine to hold. In Hallendale.
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3/4/2013 - Beerzebub Likes this wine:
Clearly young, and fairly closed for a while, but starting to open up and drink well with about 2 hours in a decanter. Deep rocky earth, cherry, mild licorice. Has some nice natural wildness to it. Firm but smooth tannins. Good acidity keeps it from being heavy. Tasty and interesting. Deserved more air or age - I look forward to trying this again.
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1/27/2013 - Magno Likes this wine:
Fruta proveniente de vinhas com mais de 65 anos de idade desta variedade indígena de Syrah, conhecida localmente por Serine. Colheita manual, fermentado com os engaces por 30 meses em ½ muids de 10 anos de idade.
Cor rubi intensa,mais para o roxo que para o vermelho, nariz intenso de flores, amoras frescas, carne crua e pimenta do reino. Médio corpo, fruta super nítida, acidez linda e salinidade deliciosa, com toques de sangue.
Tem um estilo que realmente remete ao norte do Rhone, e ficou uma beleza acompanhando rabada com agrião. Pra comprar de caixa e guardar por pelo menos 10 anos, antes que o preço suba.
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1/25/2013 - 14frimaire Likes this wine:
Holy crap, this is fantastic. What a difference a year makes. The first version was tasty and all, but this is playing on a different field.
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1/22/2013 - tooch wrote: 92 Points
Rich syrah fruit...great balance and rusticity. Complete package.
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1/15/2013 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Consistent with previous notes. Maybe a touch more tannic grip here than my other bottles showed, but it remains stunning. Need to bury the other bottles.
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1/4/2013 - Billigan wrote: 94 Points
Was tight on opening with a pronounced tannic clamp on the finish, but an hour in the decanter and all sorts of goodness came forth. Great floral aromatics, along with black olives, smokey grilled meats, and some iron-like minerality. So balanced and pure in the mouth, with flavors really well delineated and fresh. It will be fun to track this wine's evolution over time. The best syrah I've had in ages and a tremendous value at 30-some bucks.
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12/19/2012 - tooch wrote: 92 Points
This wine wasn't pure, elegant and sexy when I opened it. I sat here drinking it, referencing Zach and Salil's notes thinking, "wtf is wrong with me...". Fastforward to hour 4 and things are starting to make sense. The aromas have become more floral and while the dark fruit is still there in spades, they're augmented by iodine and iron notes that are really nice. Palate has this wildness to it with gamey flavors that mingle with softer floral-driven notes that soften the masculine core. I see good things ahead for this wine.
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11/27/2012 - christyler wrote:
I was very curious to open this, as the notes were fairly polarizing on whether it's enjoyable now or not. I found myself more in the "completely shut down and not that enjoyable today" camp.
However, at times it would offer glimpses of how good this could be - flashes of beautiful dark red fruit. The texture is quite nice, but the nose never really opened up. I'm intrigued enough to buy three more and see how it evolves.
Thoughts on when to open again?
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11/9/2012 - Chomsky wrote:
Pretty much what Salil said. Super pure and elegant, deep and dark Syrah fruit with great florality and a stony persistence. Very elegant and balanced overall. The tannins are grainy and plentiful, and this really needs time to show its best, but what's showing now augurs well for the future.
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10/31/2012 - salil wrote: 94 Points
Just like the last bottle I had. Beautiful when popped and poured, and flat out amazing after several hours of air. This is just amazingly pure, elegant Syrah.
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10/25/2012 - coremill wrote:
There's good potential here but on pop-and-pour this was showing immensely shut down and backward, with waves and waves of fuzzy drying tannin. I think there's some interesting stuff behind the tannin as there's a really lovely pure-fruited finish, but it's hard to say right now. Lock it up and throw away the key.
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10/20/2012 - salil wrote: 94 Points
Opened at 2 pm to give it some air. First impression then with a few small sips were that this is a beautiful, pure and fragrant expression of classic Northern Rhone Syrah.
A few hours later, after it's had some time to breathe, it's utterly jawdropping. I am awed that a wine with this finesse and sense of seamlessness is still available for around $35. (I can think of very few examples from Côte-Rôtie or other more exalted and more expensive appellations that have this sort of fragrance, purity and elegance.)
There's fresh berried fruit framed by a bright high toned florality, savoury earthiness and gentler meaty and saline elements, all conveyed with a delicate touch and amazing finesse on the palate. Bright acids keep it very fresh and lively, and the flavours linger long after each sip. Spectacular wine. Thanks Eric.
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