April 5, 2024 - Thomas’s Northern Rhone extravaganza (Cabotte): Characterful nose, with powdery bright red fruit, increasingly expansive and floral with air. A torrent of forest fruit on the palate, and some darker violet-ish notes too, yet all held well in check. Really tasty. My #4 wine tonight, and the group's #5.
April 5, 2024 - Syrah at Cabotte (Cabotte): Super brambley, super earthy on the nose. Surprising seam of acidity and also surprisingly mature fruit (or rather, primary/tertiary) profile. Tannis still very grippy. Really vivacious but for me it feels a bit like the fruit is advancing more quickly than the acidity and tannins are; i’m not convinced that this’ll make old bones. A little bit in the ‘neither here nor there’ stage.
March 13, 2024 - Nice... more floral & elegant than the Robert Michel... just found it a bit "straightforward"...
March 13, 2024 - Grateful for samples from Tim. Tasted blind. About 2-3 hours of air in Voss bottle already. Drank in Grassl Cru.
High toned nose, with whole bunch stems, floral violets, black pepper spices, olives, red fruits, mintiness, wild character.
Palate fresh and good acidity. Silky medium+ tannins on a medium+ body. Slight green minty herbs to the medium+ finish.
Very good quality. Silky elegant Cornas.
March 4, 2024 - Dinner with Franck Balthazar (Skai): From a magnum, rose, violet, touch of game, med body, full tannins, med acid touch jammy on the back
March 4, 2024 - Chaillots vertical with Franck Balthazar: A crowd favourite at the table. A more expressive, less earthy version of the 2010 but still old-school in style. A recurring theme was the silky, sensual texture rather than the more brutish Syrahs of some other producers. Fresh, dark red fruit, excellent balance.
February 6, 2024 - I was kinda nervous to open this after reading a few of the notes, but this bottle was showing very well. I think it has at least a few more years of upside, though it is not a vintage for the long run.
Very classic Cornas with olives, smoke, meat and all of the plum. Medium body and it showed both elegance but also the softer mouthfeel you might expect from the vintage. Tannins are still quite pronounced. Really enjoyable bottle, looking forward to the next one I open.
December 9, 2023 - Too old it seems…2nd bottle, still flabby and no remaining acidity. Gave it time to open to no avail.
October 9, 2023 - 2.5 hour decant. Dark berry, tannins till really strong. Little bit of wildness in the finish, but the deep fruit flavors are the lead. This bottle feels younger than the one last year, but also really good.
June 16, 2023 - Really dense, savory a hint of reduction on the nose . Briny with dark fruit and iron 11 years in with a long way to go…
Day two, the wine softens and sweetens up a bit, giving some dark cherry tones and fine ground black peppercorn. Very balanced, not overbearing acidity. This wine holds up great with substantial air, causing me to assume its future is bright.