2015 La Grande Colline Cornas

Syrah

acyso wrote: 90 points

October 27, 2018 - Most of the 2015 Northern Rhones worth a damn, blind (Chicago, IL): Served single blind. Immediately identified as the Ooka. It's so distinctive and it's so obvious this is one of those "natural" wines, but there's none of those unpleasant mousy aromas here. Very clean, even if the floral tones of natural winemaking do rear their head. The high-toned nature (and slight spritz) of this wine seems to not only accentuate the floral aromas, but also some really nice olive tones as well. (As a side note, I've always loved how La Grande Colline translates to 大岡. It's a great multilingual play on words.)

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acyso commented:

10/30/18, 8:11 PM - Ooka: no, I don't think the Japanese is on the label anywhere. Have always just thought it really clever wordplay. Reputationally, the wines seem to be fairly inconsistent, but I heard from multiple sources that this particular wine was sound.

Gonon: yep, legendary. Best one I've ever had.

Chave: possibly. In what I can only call the reverse-Robert-Parker-effect, I think more likely is that oak doesn't show well when next to low-oak wines. I drank a bottle of this by itself early on and quite liked it.

Jamet: I saw your notes when I was entering mine and wish I bought some halves to pick at early on. I went fairly long on this, but it looks like I missed the early window -- Chicago is the last place in the country to get new release wines -- sometimes half a year behind.

Souhaut: I'd be a bit wary. I've heard a lot about inconsistency.
acyso commented:

11/3/18, 6:56 PM - @TheLittleHorse -- can you get in touch with Moriah at HDH? I'm sure she could relay you my contact info.