2010 Northern Rhones tasted blind

Ross', NYC
Tasted Tuesday, October 8, 2013 by salil with 904 views

Flight 1 (3 Notes)

  • 2012 Julian Haart Wintricher Riesling 90 Points

    Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

    This is in that barely off-dry zone of sweetness with just a touch of residual sugar to round this out and balance the bright acids of the vintage. There's incredibly pure, vibrant citrus and green apple fruit underpinned with a vividly stony, almost crystalline mineral character, and a sense of lightness on the palate that makes it very easy to drink. Very nice.

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  • 1988 Wwe. Dr. H. Thanisch (Müller-Burggraef) Lieserer Niederberg Helden Riesling Spätlese 88 Points

    Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

    Not showing quite the same depth as the last bottle I had, but very pleasant with gentle citrus and apple fruit framed by mature savoury and smoky elements and understated sweetness matched by bright acids.

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  • 2006 Franz Hirtzberger Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel 93 Points

    Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau

    Another fantastic bottle. Powerful and opulent with ripe citrus and tropical fruit, stony mineral elements and more flamboyant spicy, honeyed and floral elements all coming together very seamlessly. It's very rich, slightly oily on the palate, but there's great balance with bright acidity beneath and good length.

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Flight 2 (12 Notes)

  • 2011 Arnot-Roberts Syrah Clary Ranch 90 Points

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    A rather stemmy, herbal aroma with very fresh red fruits and olive flavours beneath on the palate. There's a sense of remarkable purity and brightness to the flavors, and bright acidity that keeps it very lively.

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  • 2010 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud 91 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban

    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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  • 2010 Clusel-Roch Côte-Rôtie 92 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    There's a sense of power here with lots of depth and density to the fruit and gentle floral and stemmy accents, but it also comes across very backward and reserved with a firm wall of tannin on the back end, though it does soften and become more accessible with air. The balance is excellent and I get the impression this will be something quite special with time.

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  • 2010 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche / La Péroline

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    Very tannic, backward and aromatically reserved. This becomes more open with air and shows a bit more florality and spice on the nose around its core of rich red and dark fruit, but it remains incredibly tannic even a couple of hours after double decanting, and I'll leave my bottles alone for a long time.

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  • 2010 Franck Balthazar Cornas Chaillot 87 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Pleasant but rather nondescript, there's ripe red and dark fruit here but not a whole lot else and it comes across a bit simple, not showing the depth or complexity of most of the other wines here.

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  • 2010 Marie et Pierre Bénetière Côte-Rôtie Cordeloux 94 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    Once again, this is spectacular. There's an incredible fragrance here with great complexity, layers of pure fruit, olives, florality, high toned spice and more savoury earthy and meaty elements all coming together seamlessly on the nose and palate, and a very graceful, polished texture. My favourite of the night and I'm glad to have a few of these in the cellar.

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  • 2010 Louis Barruol Côte-Rôtie Les Roses 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    There's surprising development apparent here with layers of savoury smoky and earthy elements framing the fresh red and dark fruited flavours at the core. It's one of the more accessible wines in the lineup with surprisingly gentle tannins, and most of the structure here coming from a bright acid spine that keeps it very lively and fresh.

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  • 2010 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    Incredibly tannic, stemmy and backward. There's nothing about this that offers pleasure right now, it's all structure and not at all enjoyable.

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  • 2010 Bernard Burgaud Côte-Rôtie 85 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    Didn't pay a lot of attention to this, it comes across a bit unbalanced with more than a trace of alcohol on the nose, and not showing the finesse and elegance that most of the other wines in the lineup had.

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  • 2010 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône-Brézème

    Very elegant and polished; a lovely aroma of pure dark fruited flavours, spice, earth and higher toned herbal/stemmy elements, and incredibly graceful and refined on the palate with fine grained tannins and a bright acid spine making it very easy to drink. One of my favourites of the evening.

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  • 2010 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Cuvée Classique Ampodium 92 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    A great fragrance, smoky, savoury and slightly herbal elements framing a core of rich red and dark fruited flavours. Very polished on the palate with a spine of fine grained tannins and bright acids beneath the fruit, and one of the best experiences I've had from Rostaing so far.

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  • 2010 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

    An incredibly smoky fragrance at first, but with air the aromas become more high toned as floral and peppery elements emerge. Beneath there's a core of very fresh Syrah fruit and olive flavours conveyed with Allemand's typical sense of purity and finesse, and it's very elegant and wonderful to drink now, though the structure and balance promise a great deal.

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Flight 3 (2 Notes)

  • 2007 Müller-Catoir Haardter Bürgergarten Muskateller Trockenbeerenauslese 96 Points

    Germany, Pfalz

    Remarkably dark, deep amber in colour and a real high wire act of sweetness and acidity conveyed with unbelievable intensity and concentration, and yet remarkably elegant. It's hard to fully describe the aromatics here, it's incredibly floral, spicy, high toned and complex with layers of botrytis honey and spice adding to the Muskateller florality and exotic fruit flavours, and somehow remarkably well balanced, despite an obscene amount of acidity (19.6 g/l!) and sugar. One of the best Catoir wines I've had in the Franzen era.

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  • 2001 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel #12 94 Points

    Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

    This is the sort of Goldkap Auslese I wish I could find more of, there's tremendous ripeness and intensity to the fruit, but at the same time it's very pure, fresh and vibrant rather than being a mass of botrytis. There are vivid slatey mineral elements, ripe floral notes and sweet honeyed notes framing the rich fruit here, and while it's certainly quite sweet, there's also that fantastic '01 acidity keeping it remarkably light on its feet and impeccably balanced. Fantastic.

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