Domaine Stéphane Ogier: Fine Wine Dinner
Berry Bros & Rudd, London
Tasted July 27, 2017 by Papies with 342 views
Introduction
A great as always evenign organised by the Oxbridge of the wine tarde that is BBR. This was a nice opportunity to hear the man himself tell us about the developments of his wines and the vision.
BBR Intro: "Stéphane Ogier took over the reins of Domaine Ogier from his Father, Michel in 2003. Through the 1970s Michel sold grapes to likes of Chapoutier, but from 1983 he bottled everything he produced and over the following 20 years refining the style, becoming an ever more important name in the region. Over the last decade, under Stéphane’s leadership, the quality of the wines has improved enormously and they are now spoken of in the same breath as the more established, venerated Domaines we all know."
Flight 1 - The Welcome! (1 note)
As always this is a pretty enjoyable champagne and ticks all the boxes of a very good champagne. Toasty, ripe, floral good rich and round profile. Always enjoyable. Lacks of course on the star power. The definition of the 90/100
Flight 2 - The White (1 note)
Curried Prawns with sweetcorn salsa and crispy mint
Tropical fruits, exotic fruits interlaced with peaches light waxy texture and on the low acidity front. Fresh and aromatic of course and quite ripe as per vintage. A good wine albeit a bit too ripe and obvious. 88
Flight 3 - The Entry Reds (2 notes)
Grilled Sirloin of Beef with foie gras and sweetbreads, truffle and champignons
Quite a welcoming wine, fresh and spicy, mineral feel fine tannin and definitely a good result given the difficult 2014 vintage. Nice freshness and SOs recommendation (and we agreed of course) was to drink it now sooner than later. To us it felt on the light side and bit one dimensional with a light smoky feel. 89
Quite ripe and juicy (especially vs the 2014 La Rosine Syrah) with a lot of spice. We have encountered this spicy Syrah with the 2003 vintage of Ogier CR and assumed this was a 2003 heatwave specific but it seems this is the style of his generic CR wine. This 2011 was definitely open for business. Dense in terms of substance and well round but a bit too much of the Christmas spice feel that we found pushed the wine out of sync. Good wine but will be a lot better once the spice relaxes if it ever does and get a bit more balance. 90
Flight 4 - The Great Reds (2 notes)
A selection of artisan cheeses (St Felicien, Comte, Stilton)
Savoury wine, elegant, good density of fruit, light spice and a nice undertone of minerality. Floral side too which plays well vs the spice which is a lot toned down vs the normal cote rotie.
This is a wine to forget for another 5 years minimum and frankly we will not touch ours till they blow their 20 candles. 94 for now but the future is really bright here.
Frankly we expected this to be richer and oakier , more modern in a way but to the contrary a very pure expression of Cote Rotie, savoury, mineral with a solid core of black fruit. Light smoky, silky wine. We can go on here... Bottom line with some decanting at this stage you get a 95 experience, give this 10 years of evolution and could well be a perfect wine like the La Las from the 80s. 95 for now
Flight 5 - To Finish (1 note)
BBRs own selection of Chocolates
Closing
_______________________________________________________________________________
We questioned him a bit on the aged roussanne he has been bottling as far back as 2004 and when he was planning to release this. We had the chance to try the 2005 & 2009 at the domaine in 2010 but have not seen him release it. He said he is waiting for it more! (?)
His top wines need 20 years and can rival the La LAs from Guigal