2011 Domaine Yves Cuilleron St. Joseph L'Amarybelle

Community Tasting Notes (14) Avg Score: 89.9 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Wine Ratings's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/6/2018 - Wine Ratings Likes this wine:

  A smokeshow of a different sort, and a delicious one at that! Having tasted this two years ago, I was curious to see what kind of development had taken place in this bottle - happy to say it has continued down an excellent path. Sourced from 20-40 year old vines, L’Amarybelle provides a wonderful taste of more famous northern Rhône counterparts at a manageable price (though a discontinued offering as of 2015, I’ve found out!). The nose carried plenty of ripe fruit - raspberry, blackberry, cherry - but this wine was all about the savoury. Powerful smoked meat, herbs, tapenade, and tobacco came in waves. Fruit was a bit more muted on the palate, with cranberry and dried cherry coming through before relenting to more of the aforementioned savoury wave. Touches of vanilla, cinnamon, and woodspice did make an appearance, though fleeting. No doubts where this wine was from, though I’d still be curious to see where it’s going!

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View maxima's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/20/2017 - maxima wrote: 89 Points

  Assez fruité et minéral.
  Nez sur les fruits noirs et les épices.
  En bouche, assez fin et digeste. Olives et mures avec une belle acidité.
  Finale un peu juste.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View MarcusNZ's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/11/2017 - MarcusNZ Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Bacon fat with fine tannins, nice wine, drinking well now , very savoury

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Collector1855's profile
  • Report Issue

  8/5/2016 - Collector1855 wrote: 92 Points

  Dark ruby, purple core. Expressive nose of dark fruit with lots of pepper, spices, licorice and a whiff of smoke, great Northern Rhone typicity. Medium bodied, lively acidity, good tannic core. Really well made for this price point.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Wine Ratings's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/8/2016 - Wine Ratings Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Deliciously savoury, to be certain! Intense aromas and flavours of cured meats, spice, smoke, and earth were definitely the main players in this wine. Hints of fruit, mostly red and tart, emerged with each sip. Though I did decant, the wine was so tasty that it ended being drunk up before I believe it was truly presenting itself. The balance was already great but with a bit more air I suspect the fruit would have developed more on the palate, providing an even stronger sense of complexity. Still, the wine was all of what I was hoping for as a somewhat reasonably priced stand-in for the bigger stars of the northern Rhône. I do have another bottle set aside to see how it develops over time, though I didnt find the acidity or tannins overly pronouced so I'll be curious to see how it ages. Nice to know there are options out there that provide a small glimpse of what you could expect from Cote-Rotie or Hermitage!

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 14 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.