Northern Rhone Tasting

This wine group is composed of half professionals and half consumers, the two groups having met on Wine Therapy.

An interesting contrast.

• 1994 Domaine Durand St. Joseph Les Côteaux 88 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph

  Heavy duty empyreumatic (but of course not oak) smokiness, along with a spidery must, the latter blowing off to reveal some soy and iodine. Hefty hot vintage grip, with a bit of minty gritty toothpaste initially in the mouth -- stopped just shy of being astringent. More air time bizarrely led to a more floral quality. Quite nice some thought; others found it a bit rustic and simple.

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• 1995 J.L. Chave Sélection St. Joseph Offerus 88 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph

  The inaugural vintage. Bright, almost cabernet-like currant aromatics. Black olive notes as well: this wine is lithe and lean. We appear to have gotten a nice bottle, and any qualms I've had about the wine showing a green bean element in its youth is dissipated here. Later the wine seemed to fade a bit in comparison to the Durand SJ 94.

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The Chave performed -- the Jaboulet way overperformed.

• 1988 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert 91 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage

  Aromtically this appeared to be a milky reflection of the 94 St Joseph we just tried (both vintages known to show some gritty drought-related tannins). But in the mouth this wine had intense refreshing acids, purity of fruit, and decent length. Pulled from the bag, the crowd oohed and ahhed. Remarkable, as few of us give this appellation much credit -- perhaps reductivity is a good thing after all!

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• 1988 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 92 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  Tarry nebbiolo-esque nose. Flavors much more in line with mature Syrah. Like the Jaboulet Crozes Thalabert 88, quite high in acid, but with more buffering tannins and dry extract. Bloomed gloriuosly over 45 minutes to reveal peanut shell, but just a touch of bacon.

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A generic wine; a dark horse ringer; and a corked wine.

• 1991 Delas Frères Côte-Rôtie 84 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Solid, but uninspired, generic northern Rhone Syrah. Others reported it falling apart fairly quickly. Perhaps a victim of the massive crop in this vintage.

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• 1991 Guy Bernard Côte-Rôtie 90 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  A crowd pleaser, for those preferring wines a little bit more on rustic or traditional side. I felt it shone in comparison to the previous wine Delas Freres CR 91, and that it had play dough-y volatility for the first 15 minutes. Nice depth, though, and still quite a treat. The host advises that you can find mature Bernard CRs on the internet for very nice prices.

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• 1992 M. Chapoutier Hermitage La Sizeranne Flawed

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  2,4 TCA. What I call a "bloomer," as in, if we had decanted and not noticed, it would've been completely undrinkable. Poured straight from the bottle, Jon was the first to nail it to the wall. Still, educational enough. Probably would've warranted a low to mid 90s score.

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A negoce shows his style; and two over the top roasty 97s.

• 1995 Tardieu-Laurent Côte-Rôtie Les Dames Brunes 82 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Sweet, bruising fruit, in a cooked vein. Turned into sassafras cola after 15 minutes in the glass. Blecch. What do you expect from a Pinot Noir producer?

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• 1997 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie 94 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Gorgeous, and expressive (decanted for one hour six hours before the tasting.) Dark toned, with a wash of Rotie-roast. Contained elements of a hard edged tightknit Cornas while also highlighting the intense heat of the vintage. When we returned to this wine, some commented about its over the top nature -- I understood them to mean the raunchy bacon element. Yum! But we can see the Jamet is definitely modernizing.

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• 1997 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 95 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  Decent expression of terroir, but quite sweet in fruit component, and with not a little oak. As with the Jamet CR 97 in this flight, did a demonstrable job in opening up -- perhaps more, as it had not been decanted. The more it opened, the more some attendees were willing to say that it was a Syrah that could be from anywhere (that would be anywhere, Walla Walla, WA.) Probably the one bottle opened ridiculously prematurely in the tasting.

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Time to sober up with a pre-Parker Bordeaux.

• 1981 Domaine de Chevalier 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  A super lean, terroir driven wine that no one failed to recognize as Bordeaux. Still linear, if not compact, and with the capacity to go another 15 to 25 years. Quite remarkable, and did its best to cleanse our Syrah-saturated palates.

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