By: AJ McClellan
Last week we had one of our epic “You Show me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine” tasting with Rhone varietals. As usual it was a great tasting with a wonderful lineup of hard to find wines. The most interesting point was tasting the younger wines verses the older wines, seeing as typically these tastings are full of much older bottles.
2005 Guigal La Landonne – A great bottle of wine and the winner of the tasting. This 100% syrah from the Cote Rotie was rather muted when we first opened the bottle but after almost three hours of opening up the wine exploded showing wonderful black and red fruits backed by smoke and leather with a long finish of black spice and fresh flowers.
2005 Guigal La Mouline – While this is typically my favorite of the lala’s this La Mouline was not showing quite as well as the La Landonne. Just as the La Landonne was muted to start the La Mouline was not showing great until it had a few hours in the decanter. The nose was very floral and had reminisces of the great fruit and earthy characteristics of the La Landonne but it never achieved the same quality…
1988 Jean Lionnet Cornas Cuvee Rochepertuis – This bottle was showing stewed fruits with a hot brandy nose right from the start. After contemplating on the wine for a while I came to the conclusion that it definitely reminded me of the makings of fine compost that had been left on top of a old leather tomb to bake in the sun for a few weeks… I finally worked up my courage to taste the wine and while it was much better than it smelled, it was not my favorite wine I had ever had.
2006 Sine Qua Non Shot in the Dark – A stunning bottle, and close contender for the wine of the night! When I first opened this bottle I was greeted with an overwhelming bouquet of wild flowers with huge black fruit notes and wave after wave of pepper and Asian spice. This hast to be one of the best SQN wines I have tasted and while it was still young the tannins were velvety and seductive, just a wow wine.
2007 Rayas – Around the table some of the tasters thought this wine was flawed but while the alcohol was a little high and out of balance I did not find any actual flaws in the wine. I have tasted this wine a few times and have loved it in the past. This wine was showing the classic bright Bing Cherry and subtle earthy notes but it never came around to display the standard complexities that this great wine can display.
1991 Rene Rothstang Cote Blond – This was a very good bottle but I think we got to it a little late, I would have loved to taste this wine two or three years ago. The wine had dried fruits with rustic earthy notes and soft tannins but I thought it was a little light for a Cote Rotie.
1986 Marcel Juge Cornas – This was a very pretty bottle with pleasant floral notes and classic Rhone earthy aromas. I thought this bottle was showing great and while it was lighter in style it could still use a few more years in the bottle.