Decanted 2 hrs. Not much development since my last bottle in 2018. Re reading that note, it very much echos last night wine. Really dominated by Jungle Juice insect repellent aka a very strong musky presence, huge tannins, lots of feral character etc. In short, a big zero in the way of conceding anything that would be considered modern, which is great, but I think I would have liked just a touch more fruit or perhaps even wood (did I just type that?) to round things off a bit. But this was very enjoyable in a intellectual capacity, and I'll let my last two bottles sleep a decade.
Heater week; 3/8/2024-3/17/2024 (Chicago, IL): Not as nice as the last bottle I had, at the same event last year. This had a lot of black pepper, but the feral, animal qualities of this wine were a little too overwhelming. You sort of lost track of the red fruit here, especially with all the dense structure too.
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Initially a bit tight, lean and unexpressive. Took on more weight with time in the glass. Acidity in the foreground with tar and loam and dark brambly fruit. Tannins are a bit dry. Decent complexity. Medium finish.
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Very typical to the Levet style, which is to say, this shows more similarity to Cornas than Cote Rotie. Burly, gamey and a bit feral, with black fruits, olive tapenade, smoked meat and iron notes. The tannins are still quite raw, and this probably should have been decanted. I expect this to improve over the next 5-10 years.
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Classic olive aromas, bacon fat. Drinking nicely, but still quite youthful and has plenty of life. I will save my last bottle for a few more years at least.
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March Rhônes (Chicago, IL): One of my favourites tonight, even if it was a little more meaty and feral than I tend to like. I really enjoyed the black fruited-profile, the intensity, and the purity of the fruit here. Plenty of gas in the tank, this has me wondering why I don't buy Levet for my own cellar...
Deep dark purple color with brightness and clear ruby edges. Classic aromas of smoked plum & cherry, mesquite char, bay leaf, fresh & dried lavender, bone broth, sandalwood and leather. Refined fresh black fruit on the palate, edgy and nervous, with sanguine and savory secondary depth of dried peppery spices, iron, florals and beef blood. Elegant middle palate, smooth medium body with piquant acid and fineness to the tannins, finishing with lengthy rich concentration. This was tapped with a coravin then decanted several days later. It needed every bit of that time, but showed great and was worth the early look. Excellent.
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French and Italian Comparative Tasting Dinner (Middletown Township, NJ, USA): Decanted at 11am, given 2-3 hours in the decanter then returned to bottle for transport to a tasting event. Tasted opposite a 2007 Luigi d’Alessandro La Migliorini Cortona Syrah. Color is a bright, rich slightly translucent garnet. The nose has soaring aromatics with florals, game meat, a hint of smoke, spices, especially black pepper and plummy fruit. Palate has great structure, is somewhat leaner than the paired Cortona Syrah. Very mineral in character with great acidity and just a little mouth drying tannin and flavors that reflect the nose. Extremely long finish. Wonderful wine that will age very well…probably for decades. Best with more air and getting better as the evening closed. I think in time this will be even better. The group overall felt the two wines were quite similar and enjoyed them both with the Elk Medallions and mushroom risotto.
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The Syrah expression here is unmistakeable. It is text book. Some black pepper, tobacco and that typical grape-seed tannin grip. Lovely but I believe it is far too young. Hardly any tertiary notes distinguishable. Hold for at least 5 years
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Tasted double blind. Brief note. This smells like N. Rhone meets Chinon. Super peppery, blueberry, potpourri, stemmy and even a touch green, cracked green olives, and iron. Full midpalate is complex with the array of flavors constantly changing. Long finish is complex as well and evolves over the course of 3 hours beautifully. I guessed Hungarian Kekfrankos as this reminded me dead on of those wines. A nice surprise when it was revealed and certainly a different yet accurate take on N. Rhone. My first time with the producer and certainly not the last.
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Decanted 10 hrs, and I don’t think another 10 perhaps 20, would have been in any way a hinderance to bringing this young brute to life. I knew what to expect opening a young, structured vintage of Levet, but I was still thrown as to how burly and anti fruit the wine showed last night. Right to the point, I liked the wine, in fact I liked it a lot thinking about it later, but it took some work. The nose was so distinct - musky, smoke, dust, but sooo Northern Rhone to its bone marrow. The first sip had it tasting a bit sour, and not in a delightful Chianti kind of way. Thankfully, a great NY strip (doesn’t this cure all life’s ills?) got the wine into proper drinking shape, albeit in tight, tannic from, but you could see sneak peeks of character popping out. I normally am a fan of the 100 point scale, it just doesn’t work for me on a wine like this. HOLD!
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This wine is so young (opened 2017). After 3 hours decant it's still quite tight and the nose not quite as aromatic as I'd expect with a few more years (2022+?). Unmistakably Côte Rôtie, but with wonderfully wild edges.
Day 1 (3-6 hours decant): Nose features red berries, orange rind, seared fat, heated confectionery sugar, vanilla, herbs, baking spices, and a touch of pine and lavender. Palate follows fairly closely but ups the cloves, meatiness, and herbal nature. The finish is mid-to-long, grippy, and pleasantly wraps a red apple and its skin around your tongue. Tastes like the grapes were not destemmed.
It's difficult not to compare 2013 Chavaroche to its "little sibling", Levet's 2013 "Les Journaries" (also Côte Rôtie). To my taste in this vintage the Journaries is the superior wine, but they are both a serious QPR and can cellar for a few decades. Journaries is an intense and nearly mind-bending ride, whereas 2013 Chavaroche is made towards a traditional Côte Rôtie. Who doesn't love a ride.
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Quick glass at a tasting. Love this. True traditional Cote-Rotie. Pepper, olives, bacon fat and red fruit. A wine of the earth. Surprisingly light bodied for the flavor complexity. I think this is a shell of what it will become. I look forward to tasting this in 2028. (93+)
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Lots of northern rhone Syrah notes of game, smoke, some blood, iron with the dark red fruit notes taking a back seat this time, similar palate with less prevalent tannins than a few weeks ago
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Georgous nose of dark ref fruit, hints of vanilla, dark red florals, smoke, subtle game and dark minerals,expressive palate at the star but then with persuasive fine yet grippy grainy tannins take over the mid palate and finish, time (10+ years) should help all that soften out
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Immediate contrast from the Journaries, this is totally red fruited and much paler in tone. It feels even more structured and abrasive in its tannin but maybe the stuff on the other side of the scale is just lighter. You really need something meaty and creamy on your plate to get past the tannin here. This is really wild, old-style, take-no-prisoners structure. Have to revisit the leftovers to see if it opens up more.
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Dark ruby. Stemmy green tones. Medium weight. Strange brew of bitter citrus, high acidity, and frankly hard finish. Perplexing, not enjoyable, and not really recognizable at Côte Rotie except for the initial fragrance.
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Northern Rhone Tastings; 4/15/2016-4/16/2016: Tasted at the domaine (Les Peroline- French bottling of the same wine). Aromas of mesquite smoke, dark flowers, blackberry remoulade, and iron. Dense and complex on the palate, with huge, but fine, tannins. Big middle, showing minerality and brightness on a deep finish. Excellent.
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3/24/2024 - Dale M wrote:
Decanted 2 hrs. Not much development since my last bottle in 2018. Re reading that note, it very much echos last night wine. Really dominated by Jungle Juice insect repellent aka a very strong musky presence, huge tannins, lots of feral character etc. In short, a big zero in the way of conceding anything that would be considered modern, which is great, but I think I would have liked just a touch more fruit or perhaps even wood (did I just type that?) to round things off a bit. But this was very enjoyable in a intellectual capacity, and I'll let my last two bottles sleep a decade.
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3/17/2024 - acyso wrote: 90 Points
Heater week; 3/8/2024-3/17/2024 (Chicago, IL): Not as nice as the last bottle I had, at the same event last year. This had a lot of black pepper, but the feral, animal qualities of this wine were a little too overwhelming. You sort of lost track of the red fruit here, especially with all the dense structure too.
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2/24/2024 - nywine68 wrote: 91 Points
Initially a bit tight, lean and unexpressive. Took on more weight with time in the glass. Acidity in the foreground with tar and loam and dark brambly fruit. Tannins are a bit dry. Decent complexity. Medium finish.
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1/30/2024 - GrapeScott wrote: 93 Points
Very typical to the Levet style, which is to say, this shows more similarity to Cornas than Cote Rotie. Burly, gamey and a bit feral, with black fruits, olive tapenade, smoked meat and iron notes. The tannins are still quite raw, and this probably should have been decanted. I expect this to improve over the next 5-10 years.
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12/5/2023 - Grape_ape Likes this wine: 93 Points
Classic olive aromas, bacon fat. Drinking nicely, but still quite youthful and has plenty of life. I will save my last bottle for a few more years at least.
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3/12/2023 - acyso wrote: 93 Points
March Rhônes (Chicago, IL): One of my favourites tonight, even if it was a little more meaty and feral than I tend to like. I really enjoyed the black fruited-profile, the intensity, and the purity of the fruit here. Plenty of gas in the tank, this has me wondering why I don't buy Levet for my own cellar...
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11/26/2021 - MattMauldin Likes this wine: 93 Points
Deep dark purple color with brightness and clear ruby edges. Classic aromas of smoked plum & cherry, mesquite char, bay leaf, fresh & dried lavender, bone broth, sandalwood and leather. Refined fresh black fruit on the palate, edgy and nervous, with sanguine and savory secondary depth of dried peppery spices, iron, florals and beef blood. Elegant middle palate, smooth medium body with piquant acid and fineness to the tannins, finishing with lengthy rich concentration. This was tapped with a coravin then decanted several days later. It needed every bit of that time, but showed great and was worth the early look. Excellent.
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11/19/2021 - oldwines Likes this wine: 94 Points
French and Italian Comparative Tasting Dinner (Middletown Township, NJ, USA): Decanted at 11am, given 2-3 hours in the decanter then returned to bottle for transport to a tasting event. Tasted opposite a 2007 Luigi d’Alessandro La Migliorini Cortona Syrah. Color is a bright, rich slightly translucent garnet. The nose has soaring aromatics with florals, game meat, a hint of smoke, spices, especially black pepper and plummy fruit. Palate has great structure, is somewhat leaner than the paired Cortona Syrah. Very mineral in character with great acidity and just a little mouth drying tannin and flavors that reflect the nose. Extremely long finish. Wonderful wine that will age very well…probably for decades. Best with more air and getting better as the evening closed. I think in time this will be even better. The group overall felt the two wines were quite similar and enjoyed them both with the Elk Medallions and mushroom risotto.
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8/12/2020 - drfloyd Likes this wine:
Solid - drinking well. Pepper and spice on the nose with some game, etc. more tannins on day two - showing well but plenty of life ahead..
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5/26/2020 - kosdogger Does not like this wine: 88 Points
Maybe just an off bottle but this one was meh. Too green, lacking fruit, and lacking any structure.
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5/9/2020 - clayfu wrote:
Fu's wild ride - a blind tasting around the country with a vertical of Levet with French, Henriquez, Alfert, Carnes and Kane: just not ready at the moment. Closed up. Sweet fruit on the nose but everything else is shut down. Similar from the last time I had it a few years ago. Mostly dry tannin at this point
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5/1/2020 - Eriklainen wrote:
The Syrah expression here is unmistakeable. It is text book. Some black pepper, tobacco and that typical grape-seed tannin grip.
Lovely but I believe it is far too young. Hardly any tertiary notes distinguishable. Hold for at least 5 years
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2/1/2020 - familydoc wrote:
pepper, blueberry, cranberry
dusty tannins with the cranberry, pepper and blueberry
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3/6/2019 - diggydan wrote: 88 Points
2nd, non-corked bottle tastes olivey and smells meaty funky and Rhone-y but could use some fruit and stuffing/body/presence.
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3/6/2019 - diggydan wrote: flawed
Corked POS.
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8/18/2018 - ESTEELE90 Likes this wine:
Tasted double blind. Brief note. This smells like N. Rhone meets Chinon. Super peppery, blueberry, potpourri, stemmy and even a touch green, cracked green olives, and iron. Full midpalate is complex with the array of flavors constantly changing. Long finish is complex as well and evolves over the course of 3 hours beautifully. I guessed Hungarian Kekfrankos as this reminded me dead on of those wines. A nice surprise when it was revealed and certainly a different yet accurate take on N. Rhone. My first time with the producer and certainly not the last.
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6/17/2018 - Dale M wrote:
Decanted 10 hrs, and I don’t think another 10 perhaps 20, would have been in any way a hinderance to bringing this young brute to life. I knew what to expect opening a young, structured vintage of Levet, but I was still thrown as to how burly and anti fruit the wine showed last night. Right to the point, I liked the wine, in fact I liked it a lot thinking about it later, but it took some work. The nose was so distinct - musky, smoke, dust, but sooo Northern Rhone to its bone marrow. The first sip had it tasting a bit sour, and not in a delightful Chianti kind of way. Thankfully, a great NY strip (doesn’t this cure all life’s ills?) got the wine into proper drinking shape, albeit in tight, tannic from, but you could see sneak peeks of character popping out. I normally am a fan of the 100 point scale, it just doesn’t work for me on a wine like this. HOLD!
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5/27/2017 - aero Likes this wine: 93 Points
This wine is so young (opened 2017). After 3 hours decant it's still quite tight and the nose not quite as aromatic as I'd expect with a few more years (2022+?). Unmistakably Côte Rôtie, but with wonderfully wild edges.
Day 1 (3-6 hours decant): Nose features red berries, orange rind, seared fat, heated confectionery sugar, vanilla, herbs, baking spices, and a touch of pine and lavender. Palate follows fairly closely but ups the cloves, meatiness, and herbal nature. The finish is mid-to-long, grippy, and pleasantly wraps a red apple and its skin around your tongue. Tastes like the grapes were not destemmed.
It's difficult not to compare 2013 Chavaroche to its "little sibling", Levet's 2013 "Les Journaries" (also Côte Rôtie). To my taste in this vintage the Journaries is the superior wine, but they are both a serious QPR and can cellar for a few decades. Journaries is an intense and nearly mind-bending ride, whereas 2013 Chavaroche is made towards a traditional Côte Rôtie. Who doesn't love a ride.
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4/21/2017 - dbkitc wrote: 93 Points
Quick glass at a tasting. Love this. True traditional Cote-Rotie. Pepper, olives, bacon fat and red fruit. A wine of the earth. Surprisingly light bodied for the flavor complexity. I think this is a shell of what it will become. I look forward to tasting this in 2028. (93+)
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4/2/2017 - Frijole wrote:
brownish inky plum red, medium clarity, slight brickish hue
Nose: cherry, raspberry, vanilla, chocolate, tar, iron, black pepper, green herbs, clove, touch oak
Pal: cherry, raspberry, tar, earth, leather, cigar, vanilla, bacon fat, dark chocolate, coffee, touch orange rind, touch clove, tannins, oak
Feel: medium, full, savory, acidic, rustic
Finish: medium, long
T8C7
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1/7/2017 - eoinhharkins Likes this wine:
Lots of northern rhone Syrah notes of game, smoke, some blood, iron with the dark red fruit notes taking a back seat this time, similar palate with less prevalent tannins than a few weeks ago
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12/4/2016 - eoinhharkins Likes this wine: 92 Points
Georgous nose of dark ref fruit, hints of vanilla, dark red florals, smoke, subtle game and dark minerals,expressive palate at the star but then with persuasive fine yet grippy grainy tannins take over the mid palate and finish, time (10+ years) should help all that soften out
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11/22/2016 - bthatton Likes this wine: 92 Points
Extremely aromatic. Would love to see some more of the fruit come through.
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11/2/2016 - dpolivy Likes this wine:
Rosenthal Northern Rhone Tasting (Seattle, WA): Wild, herbal and full of mixed spices. Elegant, with darker fruit, meat, and some savory elements. Really lovely -- a standout.
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8/25/2016 - Keith Levenberg wrote:
Immediate contrast from the Journaries, this is totally red fruited and much paler in tone. It feels even more structured and abrasive in its tannin but maybe the stuff on the other side of the scale is just lighter. You really need something meaty and creamy on your plate to get past the tannin here. This is really wild, old-style, take-no-prisoners structure. Have to revisit the leftovers to see if it opens up more.
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7/31/2016 - drwine2001 wrote:
Dark ruby. Stemmy green tones. Medium weight. Strange brew of bitter citrus, high acidity, and frankly hard finish. Perplexing, not enjoyable, and not really recognizable at Côte Rotie except for the initial fragrance.
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4/15/2016 - MattMauldin Likes this wine:
Northern Rhone Tastings; 4/15/2016-4/16/2016: Tasted at the domaine (Les Peroline- French bottling of the same wine). Aromas of mesquite smoke, dark flowers, blackberry remoulade, and iron. Dense and complex on the palate, with huge, but fine, tannins. Big middle, showing minerality and brightness on a deep finish. Excellent.
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