April 20, 2022 - A lovely wine with friends, Decanted 2 hours ahead of the meal. The cork in great shape, slight prune and leather on the nose, lighter body than I expected, great deep ruby color. Blackberry, leather and slight pepper on palate with mellow tannins. Perfect with my friend's bow-hunted oryx tenderloin with a morel cream sauce and roasted asparagus. Wish I has another bottle!
January 22, 2019 - 1982-1991 Cote-Rotie and Hermitage (Chave, Gentaz, Jaboulet, Jamet, Jasmin, Ogier) (Berkeley): Group's #8; my #4; 2 first; 1 second; 1 third; 12 last. Complex aromas and flavors of dark fruits, cassis, bacon fat, and oak. Tastes smother and more modern than the other wines in the tasting. Medium-bodied, with decent fruit concentration, medium acidity, mild tannins, and a long finish. Strangely, almost everyone at the other table though that this was corked.
May 15, 2018 - Exotic nose , with spice and black olives. Mid-bodied, tannins mostly resolved, spicy red fruit. A-/B+
July 18, 2017 - Brought my only bottle of the 91 Ogier CR to last night's wine group dinner as we said farewell to our friend Brian, who is to moving to Florida's Left Coast. With a wine 26 years old, even though it was well cellared, you never know how it's going to go.But this bottle went great, fantastic even. The classic bacony nose was present from the first sniff, and Pablo nailed it as a CR right away. This wine had had elegance and complexity, and was softer than the slightly younger, mid-90s CRs I have like Guigal Ampuis and Rene Rostaing. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me, and the others, is that this wine was not on the downside - fully mature and won't likely won't get any better, but just a joy to drink. I had been thinking for a while about when to bring it to a group dinner. Glad I waited until now - 1991 is special for Brian (year he got married) and he's brought much younger Ogiers to past dinners. The whole dinner was fabulous -- kudos to chef Oscar at Two Chefs for 4 wonderful courses (as usual), and everyone's wines were spot on as well. At the previous dinner one of the guys brought a slightly corky '82 Leoville Las Cases; so Barry decided to bring one from his cellar this time that was everything you'd want in a LLC from a great vintage. Since we do a double-blind format, I and several others IDed at Bordeaux but no one guessed LLC. For me, that and the Ogier were my co-WOTN.
July 19, 2016 - Medium body and really elegant, the nose was quite mature, lots of meaty aromas and Asian spices, I think it started to shine after 30mins or so and opened up beautifully over an hour or 2
April 10, 2013 - Bobby Kacher Tasting and Dinner (The Boarding House - Chicago IL): Sensational aromatic start with lots of spice, both some sweet/baking notes ans well as savory Asian five spice. An alluring very feminine wine, very charming start-to-finish. Moderately mature black cherry, more so on palate vs. nose. Simpler overall on palate. Good density, moderate length. At its peak now. Thanks, Gary!
October 13, 2012 - Brick red center with watery, orange rim. The nose was very complex with a blast of olives, red raspberry, earth, and wintergreen. The palate was unique with olives, minerals, earth, wintergreen, and tobacco. I searched for roasted meats or bacon but to my disappointment, found none. Structurally, this wine was light-bodied with fully resolved tannins and moderate acidity. The finish was minty and earthy but was a tad short. The wintergreen (think Skoal smokeless tobacco) became more prominent on day one. On day two, the wintergreen subsided and olives were more identifiable. Overall, I really wanted to love this but found it to be strange, like a pretty girl with an incredibly annoying laugh. I hope my final bottle is more to my liking.
April 7, 2011 - Medium-light red, pale-edged. Powerful nose of raspberry, violets, full pan of bacon frying, mint, licorice. Low tannin, medium-low acid. Rich in the mouth and silky smooth, it delivers a significant dollop of primary berry fruit to go with the smoky meat and mint. Fantastic finish. Classic low-oak Cote Rotie doesn't get better than this. Bottle #12 of twelve.
September 11, 2010 - Ogier Cellar Visit and Tasting (Côte-Rôtie): Tasting at winery. Stephane brought out this surprise library release as we wrapped up tasting red wine. Nose showed a nice combination of primary and secondary character with some sweet baking spice in near background. Palate was more primary than secondary with lots of charming red fruit with very nice balance, even if not incredibly long.
September 11, 2010 - Tasting at Ogier with Stephane Ogier
Following a 2 hour tasting with Stepahne at the Domain ( his Condrieu is excellent and so is the New roussanne's comign out in 2014 after 10yr in bottle) he went to his house and brought out an unmarked beauty made by his Father. We tasted with no decanting and with no knowledge of the vintage.
Big beautiful nose, seductive, with sweet undertones. Reminded me of a 1989 Clos de Papes we tried the day before. Fine very elegant and well rounded, delicious wine. Medium finish and lots of red fruit.
I went with 1989 Nicol with 1988. It was from the great 1991 vintage. A great joy.