Premium 2007 Southern Rhone and 2006 Guigal Single Vineyard Cote Rotie

• 2007 Château de Montfaucon Côtes du Rhône Baron Louis

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône

  Medium color. Complex herbal, green aromatics. Nice medium weight. Savory flavors, good acidity, excellent balance. Once again, impressive at this level.

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• 2007 Alain Jaume Lirac Clos de Sixte

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Lirac

  Medium red. Garrigue and licorice nose. Again, middle weight, black fruit and anise, no artificial sweetness. Very nice for the price.

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• 2007 Domaine de la Mordorée Lirac La Dame Rousse

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Lirac

  Deep center. Combination of dark berries and herbs. Dark, serious, chocolatey flavors with some perceptible alcohol. Very good though.

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• 2007 Domaine de la Charbonnière Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Vieilles Vignes

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

  Medium ruby, sweetest profile on the nose so far. Medium weight for Chateauneuf and contrary to the aromatics, not overly sweet due to a nice, late arriving surge of licorice and bark. A touch of heat at the end, but not enough to keep me from enjoying this.

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• 2007 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée

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

  Medium depth center, lighter edge. Cleaner and less funky than the first time I tried this. Nice perfume already. Deep and serious rendition with lovely weight. Not overly extracted, not too much of anything. Today, pretty classic and if there is brett, it is there at low levels in the background. I liked this very much, but based upon 2 bottles sampled, expect variability.

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• 2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

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

  Medium color, certainly not saturated looking. Not showing much on the nose, which is surprising since it is relatively ripe, sweet, and open in the mouth. Mourvedre fruit and tannins arrive late. Just a bit of alcoholic heat at end too, but enough wine to stand up to it. This was clean, very pretty, and quite approachable-in a word, quite "un-Beaucastel-like". A completely different animal from the '05 at the same stage, which was bigger, more tannic, and completely closed. I imagine that this will appeal more to lovers of Grenache-based Chateauneuf than to old time Beaucastel fans.

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• 2007 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois

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

  Moderately dark. All alcohol on the nose. Oh dear-simple, sweet, jammy red fruit with alcoholic fire that cuts through everything else to ruin the balance. A caricature of Chateauneuf, I'm afraid. Awful.

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• 2007 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape

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

  Lighter color in this context. Fragrant but alcoholic smelling. Medium weight. Good sap, nice balance between the red fruit and garrigue, slight sweetness, but you can't escape the fact that this one also burns as it goes down. Not as offensive since it is recognizable Chateauneuf, but I still would not buy it given this (lack of) balance. What a shame for Clos des Papes, once (and by this I mean as recently as 2001) one of the most subtle, understated wines in the appellation. The previous note in the database says that this wine is "screaming", and this is accurate. I preferred it when it used its indoor voice.

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• 2006 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Medium depth some brown in rim. High toned fragrance, some of which is wood. Not a big wine. Spicy, sappy with darker fruit on finish, relatively open. However, the wood gives an overpowering, resiny, drying green quality which really takes away from the feel of the wine and curtails the finish. I don't care for this.

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• 2006 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Slightly deeper than La Mouline. Less volatile, more somber nose. More backward, more mineral, higher acid, and lighter feel than the former wine. Less obvious wood, but similar pine notes assert themselves on the finish and render it slightly astringent. Nevertheless, good length. Could be very good if the wood is integrated over time, but I don't see it turning into something special.

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• 2006 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Darkest of the 3 Guigal wines. Reticent nose. Round, harmonious, relatively low acidity. This is the most Syrah-like with blackberry fruit and licorice. Concentrated, serious, lushly tannic without being sweet. To me, the best of these wines today by a wide margin. If the wood is there, it is not out of place as it is in the other 2 wines. The only thing lacking at present is that floral, aromatic Cote Rotie quality, but maybe this will come with time.

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Ironically, amongst the '07 southern wines, the lower down on the food chain, the more I generally enjoyed the wines for their lower extraction and alcohol. The Beaucastel is good, but hardly a classic vintage for this wine, and is in some ways reminiscent of the '98.

It has been some time since I've tasted any of the Guigal luxury cuvees. The La Landonne really impressed; I was troubled by the wood treatment of the other two in this stable.