2011 Franck Balthazar Côtes du Rhône Sans Soufre

Community Tasting Notes (5)

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  1/24/2013 - Chomsky wrote:

  Another great bottle of this awesome wine. What a find! For an area crying for affordable wines of character, the Northern Rhone could do a lot worse than this incredible bargain.

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  1/20/2013 - french16 wrote:

  Sans Soufre cuvee and very good cdR. Much better on day 2. At first, lots of dark fruit (blackberry/blueberry). More air brings beautiful floral notes with maybe a hint of meat. Velvety, delicate mouthfeel.
  Great stuff.

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  1/6/2013 - Michael Davidson wrote:

  Doesn't seem at all carbonic to me. Pretty spritzy to start, but after thirty minutes or so evolves into a lovely syrah. Medium bodied, dark fruit with savory elements. Strong acidity, very little tannins. Yum.

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  12/22/2012 - WST wrote:

  What a gorgeous wine. Fresh and exuberant, dark fruit melded with green notes, especially green olives. Silky, balanced, made for drinking now and drinking often. Crazy good wine.

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  12/10/2012 - Chomsky wrote:

  YUM. What a delicious young wine this is. 100% Syrah made "from young vines on decomposed granite just outside the Cornas AOC, organic methods, wild yeast fermentations" (per Chambers St.), without any added sulfur. It seems to have undergone some kind of carbonic maceration. Super fragrant with blackberry, truffle, and clay-like aromas wafting from the glass, the wine is ripe but very delicate and velvety in texture, highly finessed with lively flavors. Basically no tannins. Super glou-glou! I'm eager to try the minimally-sulfured version when it arrives later this month.
  
  Day 2: the overt fruitiness and the lifted carbonic notes have subsided and the wine is more smoky, with a faint ashiness, though still very smooth and silky.

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