Commanderie des Costes du Rhone - Fall 2022 Kick-off
Claud
Tasted Tuesday, September 6, 2022 by MC2 Wines with 141 views
Introduction
The NYC wine season of events are back and I managed to make it up for the Rhone dinner. Lots of La Chappelle and Chave for this one with a good smattering of CdP.
Menu
Escargot croquettes
Melon and Shiso
Onion comte bread
Crudo of tuna, trout and scallop
Chicken liver agnolotti
Aged duck breast with plum and creme fraiche
Moses sleeper mille-feuille with confit tomatoes
Flight 1 (20 Notes)
Closing
Overall a fun night with lots of good wines. Hard to pick a favorite (although I did turn down an Allemand later in the evening that prob could have contended for the honor). Nice to connect with old friends. Claud did a superb job hosting and with the menu (and without any mushrooms! a feat that I suspect will not soon be repeated).
2017 J.L. Chave Sélection Hermitage Blanche
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Starter wine for the evening which was paired really well with the passed hors d'oeuvres. Without the food this wine was just ok but with it it showed much better - more honey and white floral sides. Word on the street is the St Joseph is better, but this was enjoyable.
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2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Continues to be a favorite wine of mine. This was just a nice little honeypot. All round and full. Yet somehow balanced. Nice pairing with crudo which had just a touch of salt that brought out the sweet in the wine.
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1996 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Probably the white WOTN I think. It was beeswax and oxidation and honey and almost a sour note and yet all of that combined to be this very interesting wine that had me coming back to it.
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2011 J.L. Chave Sélection Hermitage Blanche
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
A slightly more aged version of the intro wine of the night. Still quite bright and fresh although there's more of a chalkiness in the profile here. A bit less primary and a lighter body to it. Drinks fairly well, but hard on the heels of the VV and Chave Blanc.
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2007 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc l'Ermite
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Fresh with some good acid which for me is required to balance the bigger body of the rhone white. It's a bit floral and lightly honey. I absolutely love the red of this vineyard which I find to be the more elegant style across the Chapoutier and you can see that here too despite the warm year. Enjoyable.
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1988 J. Vidal-Fleury Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
I'd buy all of the rest of these up if I could. This wine was just awesome and a real contender for WOTN for me. All gamey and meaty and big and with this nose that jumps many inches out of the glass at you. It's in kindof the perfect drinking window. That lovely precision that is almost like an iron core that you get from the Cote Rotie. Note - double decanted for sediment which was really necessary - there were a lot of chunks in the bottle that I think could have turned the wine bitter if left there with the air.
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1990 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
We had an interesting discussion around this wine at our table. It is one of the most iconic wines of the region and yet as I've noted in previous notes I'm still waiting to have that moment with it. Perhaps missing the long decant and certainly in this type of situation where it's all small pours and onto the next wine a wine that needs time and contemplation struggles a bit more. I liked the linearity of it and there is a boldness and maybe just a promise of something there but it was still a bit tight and not expressing as much as you'd hope.
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1976 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
A lovely example of a good wine with the right amount of age and in a nice spot and everything just firing well together. This isn't always my producer or my vineyard but this was a very enjoyable wine.
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1978 E. Guigal Hermitage
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Alas not the best of bottles and perhaps could have done with a double decant as it poured quite a bit more cloudy. Unfortunate as I had an enjoyable experience with the last one.
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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
This was just big and after a bunch of northern rhone it stands out quite a bit. Lots of alcohol and more intense in style with dark red fruits. The thing that made me like it though is there is a crispness here to that fruit. It's not all over-ripe or gloshy (not a word, but it conveys the point). I wonder if with some time this won't be rather wonderful.
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2012 Clos Saint Jean Châteauneuf-du-Pape Sanctus Sanctorum
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Bigger still. Lots of spice. Lots of alcohol. Out of a magnum (I think they might all be magnums). Lots of time needed but probably also just made in a style that's a bit different and more hedonistic which can be fun at times.
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1995 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
I think I might really like this year of Chave. There's a bit more class to the wine than in some others. I guess comes from maybe a touch of floral and maybe just a hint of that backbone that I love so much from Cote Rotie. We also though maybe a little more green notes - like a mint - and that's right in my wheelhouse.
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2005 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
What a difference some time makes. This is a producer I've always avoided a bit because it just hasn't felt like my style and yet this was one of the best wines from him I've tried. It's tasty. More muted and structured and no very aggressive oak (usually the piece I struggle with). As that's integrated this is drinking much more nicely.
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1998 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
Contender for WOTN for me. I hesitate to say it's ready to drink, but it's certainly no longer in it's definitely unready stage. Everything well integrated. Very powerful and yet with a nice hint of elegance (gotta love the Viognier). Very enjoyable wine.
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1999 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Côte Blonde
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
Opened when we started the dinner so it has some time to get some air but this bottle seemed to be much younger than some of the others we've drunk and needed I think more time than that. It's a beautiful wine, big and powerful. Needs some time to find more of the elegance that I always appreciate too. Will continue to hold on our bottle. This is only going up.
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1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
I almost never think the La Landonne's are ready to drink and yet this vintage surprised me with how open for business it was. Great fruit, good age, nice style and heft to it. Often I find that there's a certain power or background sense to this producer's version of this vineyard where you are not tasting what you will taste. Here I think we might be in the drinking window. And it is a lovely wine.
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2010 Domaine Pichat Côte-Rôtie Les Grandes Places
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
I have some of this from a later year in the cellar despite never having tried the producer and so it was fun to do. This is still much too young. It's big and more intense and darker fruit and more heat. Surprising a bit with the year and location, but all of that I think can still combine/age into a nice package although it wasn't quite there yet for us this night.
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2007 Roger Sabon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Le Secret des Sabon
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
From a magnum and towards the end of the night and yet this was drinking quite smooth - a bit like drinking velvet. Some nice fruit. I expected it to be much more intense, but it was indeed nice.
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2001 Domaine de la Vieille Julienne Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
The CdP of the night for me for sure. This was lovely and balanced and so the fruit came across as really enjoyable but not overpowering. Nice wine.
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1991 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie La Mordorée
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
Always some very fun wines at the end of the evening and this was no different. Good almost briney style dried meats and a hint of black fruit and drinking pretty well.
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