By Ryan Tedder
Another mundane Monday evening at Graileys…NOT! We had a fantastic member host some friends and pull out some great Rhone wines to enjoy during their discussions. In addition to that we had a pre-tasting hello and drink some good juice with the winemaker Xavier Gonet-Medeville from he and his wife’s winery in Champagne. Lastly Todd from Martine’s wines completed the crew. It was a study in nuance and ethereal aromas followed by blunt force trauma and perfection. Wow!
We started with a properly aged 1990 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne Montrachet les Vergers 1er Cru. Vergers is just West of Batard Montrachet and this wine spoke of aged power and slightly oxidized richness. The wine started with buttered toast, honey, hazelnuts and white and yellow flowers like honeysuckle. The wine started with a baked pineapple edge that opened up into a more ripe apricot, peach, nectarine, bruised apple and quince myriad. A stony minerality framed the wine and the finish was expansive and thought provoking. Caramel apples teased at the end. Definitely not for the “unoaked” Chard camp but a delight to enjoy now.
Next was another French white that was much less old and due south. The 2007 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc is taking on some fine tertiary notes of marzipan, candle wax, cintronella, lemon oil and nougat. I have enjoyed this wine over the last few years and it is shedding some of its youthful lemon tang and taken on a richer, sweeter lemon curd, lemon bar, lemon zest nuance that really plays nicely against some of the fuller aged Rousanne notes of creme fraiche, butter, honey and white roses. A really lively wine with air-tangerine and sweet citrus emerged as well as quince and tart yellow apples. Drinking in a good window right now.
Next off we sampled two Pinot Noirs from the new and old world to discover the differences and enjoy two well-made wines. First off we popped a bottle of 1997 Flowers Camp Meeting Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir. This was the most surprising wine of the night for me. Simon even uttered the it reminded him of aged Richebourg! It definitely had some great Vosne Romanee character and was singing at this age! The nose started with black truffles, turned wet soil, dried violets, and a wide array of dark red, blue and purple fruit – Saturated black cherries, plum pudding, black raspberry, cassis, and black licorice to name a few! The wine was round and plump on the palate and had a gobby tannin structure that reminded me of very ripe plum flesh. The wine showed great out of the bottle and was drinking at its peak.
In contrast the 1991 Domaine Dujac Clos St. Denis Grand Cru was restrained and full of more life. The wines of Dujac always have a purity and a power that have made the wines renowned throughout the world-this wine was replete with that. 1991 was not known as the best vintage but this wine was a stunner. There was a delightfully musky nose with loads of dried roses, dried mushrooms, gravel, tobacco, and cherry cordial. The wine smelled like all the funk that newly opened great Burg will have with a matchbook note that needed to blow off. The wine started to expand in the glass and the finish was laser beam focused from the get go. I think this wine would still go for another 10 years! We drank it over the course of an hour and it was still just unfolding. The fruit profile was pure tart red with sour cherry, red apple skin, ripe cranberry, tomato leaf and jazzy raspberry. The tannins were fine grained and caressing with loads of stony granite minerality. This further makes me believe in Dujac and I hope to worship at this temple often!
We had a nice new world Cab from one of our favorite producers with a little age on it from the “horrible” 2003 vintage. The 2003 Jones Family The Sisters Cabernet Sauvignon was showing wonderful with a mature nose of blackberries, plums, cassis, black licorice and gravelly minerality. There was a nice bay leaf and mint herbaceous note that played well with the mature fruit. The oak was fully integrated but added a nice cocoa, cinnamon and coffee roast note. This was a Heidi Barrett wine and boy it was delish!
We had a special little treat to try the newest vintage of SQN Syrah! We tried the 2010 Sine Qua Non Five Shooter Syrah and it was quite surprising. Based on previous vintages of other SQN Syrahs I had expected a fuller, sappier mouthfeel and more power. The wine was absolutely beautiful to drink-like an elegant version of great Cote Rotie from a cooler year. A polished, balanced and heady wine more in the Grand Cru Burg (Echezeaux?) camp with more new world fruit than earth. The nose led with violets, macerated blackberries, white pepper, rose petals, fudge and tangy red fruit. It was generous yet balanced in the mouth with the same flavors as the nose and the finish was already 45 seconds long out of the bottle! I don’t want to come close to this for a while at least 7 years and I bet it will last for 30 years with its pleasing, balanced acidity and robust extract.
The SQN Syrah served as a perfect warm up to two of the absolute best expressions of Syrah in the world from its traditional home in the Northern Rhone. First we decanted and poured the 1990 Chapoutier Le Pavillon Ermitage Syrah. This was one of the most aromatically compelling wines I have ever smelled. It smelled and tasted like the prologue to the best book ever written…I think this wine could legitimately be a 50-70 year cellar candidate and it was coyly and slowly unfolding for 4 plus hours. On the nose it smelled of cigar box, rosemary and thyme cooked brisket, road tar, lavender, bacon fat, mesquite smoke, molasses and dead animal. It took on notes of potpourri, dried herbs, dried meats, plums, black pepper, fig, date, and orange peel. Wow! The wine on the palate was muted and only tasted of potential for the first 3 hours and then was just starting to reveal itself in seismic waves when we finished it. This was a 100 pointer and it tasted every bit the part.
We finished the night by killing one of the best single vineyard Cote Roties in the 2005 E. Guigal La Turque Cote Rotie. This is one of the three La La’s from Guigal that have consistently been some of the best wines in the world year over year for the last 30 years. The La Turque is cofermented with 7% Viognier and it is probably the most gamey and animal expression of the three. It is another 100 pointer and I would not come close to this wine for another decade. The wine was full of ripe blackberry and black cherries, violets, bacon fat, and red plum flesh. The wine was multilayered and powerful flirting with every aspect of purple fruit and flowers and feral animal, granite minerality, and fresh cracked cigar tobacco. Simply remarkable!
Yep just another mundane Monday at Graileys….