2003 Domaine des Rémizières Crozes-Hermitage l'Essential (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

I preface this review by saying that I have tasted this wine over the course of multiple days with plenty of aeration between tastings, but I simply am not coming to a materially different conclusion that I did when I first tasted it right out of the bottle. This wine may be a decent wine in the context of all wines in the world, but it has nothing to do with Crozes-Hermitage. Absolutely nada. Zero typicity, zero earth, zero terroir, zero pepperiness, zero meatiness that I like so much in my Crozes-Hermitage. This wine is simply the greatest Frankenstein wine I have ever tasted. Overripe, blowsy, sweet with seemingly noticeable residual sugar, dominated by pretentious fruit juice flavors and chalky, chunky, Tums-like texture. In the context on Crozes-Hermitage, this wine is a disaster of epic proportions. I actually think it tastes more like a CdP from an ultra-ripe vintage. This could pass for a non-descript new world Syrah experiment gone wrong. There is so much so wrong with this wine, that I don't even have the space to fully detail my disappointment.

If you like Crozes-Hermitage and own this wine...I recommend selling it if you can. If you can't, then cooking seems to be a great way to get rid of this stuff. And before someone says that the hot vintage must be to blame, allow me to say that I have tasted other Crozes-Hermitage from 2003 that have been very good to legendary such as Jaboulet's Thalabert. And other wines from the Northern Rhone have been inspiring, as well, as evidenced by my encounter with a Guigal 2003 Brune et Blonde. Vintage doesn't explain anything here...this is all winemaking-related. Truly offensive wine to bear the denomination Crozes-Hermitage.

1998 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage)

This one isn't going to win you over with its fruit forward-ness. That said, this wine has amazing finesse, elegance, freshness, and yet, it is able to pack impressive intensity of flavor. Silky texture that's more reminiscent of Pinot Noir than Syrah. The nose is soaring out of the glass and olive tapenade, black pepper, dried herbs and blackberry are the primary flavors. There's a sappiness in this wine that I don't traditionally associate with Syrah, especially US Syrah. Finishes tremendously well and just a stunning bottle of wine. Although it is certainly a terrific food wine, this is actually a bottle that one can drink and ponder...an "intellectual wine". The only regret I have is that I don't own a case full of this.

2003 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

One of the best wines I've had all year. Yes, it doesn't aspire to the same heights and glory as the recent Bonneau or Lafite, but I bet I could serve this blind to any wine geek and they'd think I am serving them $100/bottle wine. The depth of the fruit in this wine, the freshness, the spiciness, and the perfect mix of velvety and silky textures are simply amazing. And it's even more astounding that I paid $24 for this years ago. I should have bought cases of this and even then, it still wouldn't be enough. If you can buy this well-stored, it's worth picking some up. This Crozes has many years of improvement ahead of it.

2003 E. Guigal Crozes-Hermitage (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

This one is beginning to show a little weird. I thought it nearly undrinkable right out of the bottle. Thin and weedy, acidic and angular, I left this in the cellar for a few days, and interestingly enough, the wine has filled out and plushed up. It's showing mostly black berries and black olive tapenade flavors. A tad simple, but drinkable. Yet, I don't see this ageing for too much longer. A wine that I am not sure how to assess its lifespan.

2003 E. Guigal Crozes-Hermitage (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

Popped this on a recent week night, and I continue to like this wine. Purchased for less than $20 a few years ago, this delivers multiple times its purchase price in flavor. Fairly classic olive tapenade, blackberry and bacon fat with some earth, bramble and iodine notes on the nose. Paired well with some strongly flavored grilled sausages, and should do well with a variety of foods. The hot 2003 vintage is evident in the easygoing nature of this wine and an abundance of fleshy fruit, but it retains great acidity and stays in perfect balance. Massive QPR although I suspect it would be difficult to find for purchase at this point.

1995 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage)

This is the kind of wine that excites me. As good as the Bressler was that preceded this, the La Chapelle was a screaming wine. For one thing, it kept evolving in the glass over hours. And I mean that in a good way. It showed different nuances at different stages, but it was always delicious. An amazing amount of blackberry and black currant fruit was perfectly balanced by a beautiful acid structure, and lovely tannins. Meat juices, bacon fat, earth, black olives, black pepper and cold smoke were obvious flavors and aromas. The La Chapelle was very juicy and sappy...not unlike a nice Burgundy in that way. It is worth mentioning that I had the 1990 only last weekend and this bottle (the finest of three or four I have had the privilege of tasting) was almost as good as the 1990 I tasted the weekend prior. Surely, the fact that this bottle was pristine had something to do with it. I wish I had a few more of this one. I can only imagine what this will be like in 5-10 years when it will truly drink at peak.

2006 M. Chapoutier Crozes-Ermitage Les Varonniers (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

This is an expensive wine, and an even more expensive Crozes-Ermitage (at $40 retail). But this Varonniers more than delivers both as a Crozes-Ermitage, as well as a Northern Rhone wine. It's a packed wine that delivers perfect balance from when the bottle is first opened until it's finished 3 days later. There's good extraction (but not overblown at all), juicy acidity, explosive dark fruit and briny black olive paste, good earthiness, meatiness, and even some fine minerality. Laser focused fruit and precise on the palate. At $40, this is a steal as it is not just a top Crozes-Ermitage, but also a very fine Northern Rhone Syrah that can go head to head with many an Hermitage. Highly recommended.

2002 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Méal (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage)

The first of our Valentine's Day weekend wines. Very nice wine. Ready to drink now and certainly not in need of years of extra ageing. Dark blackberry fruit with some beefy meat juice flavors. Lightly floral, perfectly balanced and thoroughly enjoyable. What's missing is some more structure, explosiveness on the palate, and focus of fruit. Certainly obvious that this wine is not a Le Meal from a top vintage, but it's nothing to sneer at regardless.

2001 E. Guigal St. Joseph Lieu-Dit St. Joseph Rouge (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph)

Rock star wine. The best of the three bottles I had. This was all about elegance, finesse, and complexity. Dark, almost black berry fruit, black olive tapenade, and a hint of meat juices, cured ham, and smokiness. Very earthy. Perfect balance and this bottle was drinking at its peak. Amazing wine.

2005 Domaine Combier Crozes-Hermitage Clos des Grives (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

Killer wine. Pure bacon fat, olive tapenade, dark fruit, figs and tea leaf. Incredibly focused fruit and acidity. Long on the palate and finish with velvet/silk texture. Stylistically and qualitatively on par with Alain Graillot's La Guiraude, and one of the very best Crozes I've ever had. Laughably well priced at around $35. More like Hermitage than a "lowly" Crozes. A wine to buy by the boatload.

1997 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage)

After having had a lot of disappointing wine experiences recently, I decided to open something that I thought would surely excite me, and this bottle of La Chapelle delivered big-time. I followed this wine over the course of two nights. On day one, the wine showed very tight, massive and youthful. Almost a little Southern Rhone-ish with earth, herbs, and dark plum and blackberry fruit. It only lacked a little focus and generosity. On night two, though, this minor issue was corrected. Black olive aromas, meaty tones, and black currant had come to the mix overnight, and the fruit showed the focus I had hoped for all along. The more air the wine got, the more focused it became, yet at the same time, it kept unfurling and the fruit got broader and sweeter. This may not be a 1989 or 1990 La Chapelle, but it's an amazing wine that I could never have enough of. If I would get to open another bottle anytime soon, I would decant for at least 5 hours, or even better, audouze it overnight in the cellar.

2003 Tardieu-Laurent Crozes-Hermitage Vieilles Vignes (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

I bought this at a great price largely based on critics' scores, and I'm sorry I did. Everything about this wine is just a shame. It's a shame I paid any money for it, and it's a shame that a wine that has good fruit and nice acidity needed to be sabotaged with so much oak that one may think there's a whole oak tree in the bottle. All I could taste was roast coffee flavors and burnt, scorched earth. The oak is so prevalent that it's just plain ridiculous. I don't think this can even be used for cooking. It's not often that I flat out hate a wine, but this one I do...it is truly vile. Stay away from it as far as you can. DNPIM.

Impressions from Saturday Night Wine Soiree

On Saturday, we hosted a wine soiree at our humble abode and invited 20+ of our friends and Austin's wine afficionados. I didn't take formal notes as I wanted to enjpoy the evening and company, but I am listing the lineup below and some brief impressions.

Token Whites
2000 Monbousquet Blanc
2006 Doennhoff Riesling Spaetlese "Oberhaeuser Bruecke"
2003 Saxon Brown Semillon Casa Santinamaria Vineyard

Reds
1979 Chateau Belair
1989 Olga Raffault Chinon "Les Picasses"
1990 Olga Raffault Chinon "Les Picasses"
1998 JL Chave St. Joseph
1998 E Guigal Cote Rotie "Brune et Blonde"
1999 E Guigal Cote Rotie "Brune et Blonde"
1996 Pesquera Crianza
2000 Vietti Barolo Ravera
2003 Janasse Chaupin CdP
2005 Clos des Papes CdP
2001 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova
2002 St. Innocent Pinot Noir "Shea Vineyard"
2003 Pavie Macquin
2000 Lopez Heredia Bosconia Reserva
2000 Numanthia Toro Termanthia
1999 Rafanelli Cabernet Terrace Select (did not taste)
2000 Clos du Marquis (in magnum)
2007 Vieux Donjon CdP (did not taste)

Wine of the night:

Hard to pick one wine from a lineup a good as this one, but I will go with the 2005 Clos des Papes. Textbook CdP that showed extremely well after being audouzed for about 7 hours. Soft yet structured, and with plenty of elegance and finesse. Just lovely. As good as the Clos des Paepes wa, the bottle of 2003 Janasse Chaupin was not far behind, and neither were the two bottles of Olga Raffault Chinon "Les Picasses", which showed beautifully. Amazingly, the 1990 showed much younger and greener than the 1989. Either way, these four wines were my favorites. I did not get to taste the 07 VD, but hope to rectify this situation very soon.

Dud of the night:

The 2001 Casanova di Neri is a good wine, but not nearly as good as has been maintained by the wine press. One thing in particular that bothers me about this wine is that as tasty a it is, it doesn't speak of its place. The fact that CDN is implicated in the Brunellopoli scandal is not surprising to me as this wine just doesn't seem like it could be pure Sangiovese...but what do I know. Either way, $200 for this wine is frankly insane, and if you can get some Guidalberto or Serre Nuove from a better vintage, you can have a nearly identical drinking experience for far less money. YMMV.

Surprise of the night:

In this category, I see a tie between the 1998 Chave St. Joseph and the 2003 Pavie Macquin. I thouht the Chave may show over the hill, but nothing could have been further from the truth. It drank at peak, and was a lovely mix of pepper, bacon fat, and earth. What a great wine for the money. The 2003 Pavie MAcuin, I expected to show overblown and roasted, and again, it wa a very nice, layered wine with plenty of fruit, but also some retraint. To me, this wine performed as well as any of the critics' reviews. Glad to have one more in my cellar.

QPR of the Night:

This award has to go to the 2000 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia that was purchased on wines.com in Austin by a friend for less than $9 per bottle. This wine is stupidly good to begin with, but at 75% off retail, this wine is just a laughable deal. Back up the truck.

Fake of the night?

I know many of you will think it's impossible, but I believe the bottle of 1998 Cote Rotie from Guigal was a fake. I looked at the label and cork, and found nothing suspicious, but this wine, which I have had on three occasions, and which has shown 100% consistent, tasted nothing like Cote Rotie. As a matter of fact, it tasted almost exactly like an inexpensive Southern Rhone from CdP, Gigondas, or Vacqueyras. No bacon fat, no pepper, far too much funk...the 1999 we drank side by side with this showed completely typical and only heightened my impression that the 98 wa a fake. I had purchased the lot on K&L a few years back, so it's hard to believe it would be a fake.

As is usual with these evenings, there was even more wine that I didn't taste and don't remember. Among them was a Le Cadeau Pnot from Oregon, a Vilmart Champagne in Magnum, an obscure, dry white Bordeaux in screwcap, and other gems I may have missed.

Thanks go all my friends who made this evening fun and brought all the delicious food.

One last word, and unfortunately a sad one...my father, Werner Pelz, passed away somewhat unexpectedly on Friday after a short bout with heart disease. The tasting and these notes are dedicated to his memory and his life. I will post my thoughts on his passing in a separate thread once I've had a chance to collect all my thoughts and turn them into a coherent hommage to the man that influenced my life so much.

1998 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph)

• 1998 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (6/15/2009)
  This is liquid olive tapenade, gravel, bacon fat and berries. Needed some time to fill out in the glass, but after about 30 minutes it showed plush fruit, intense flavors, and lovely acid structure. Drinking at peak in my opinion and nowhere to go but downhill. Perfect foil for grilled NY Strip steak tonight. The fattiness of the steak was cut through by the acidity structure of the wine. Delicious.

1998 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie)

• 1998 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (5/31/2009)
  Very slight leaker. Despite the minor leakage, this is performing well, albeit not as well as last time I had it about two years ago. Bacon fat, black pepper, and black currant on the nose. Pretty solid structure on the palate with good freshness. Black currant, pepper, and cold smoked flavors on the palate. Finishes long and fully dry. Keeps putting on more and more weight with continued air. Will be interesting to see how the next bottle will perform.

Posted from CellarTracker

1998 Alain Voge Cornas (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas)

• 1998 Alain Voge Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (5/16/2009)
  I think after tasting this bottle, I can conclude that the prior bottle was indeed slightly flawed. This bottle showed much better from the start. On night two, it started singing with the fruit having filled out. A soaring nose of olive tapenade and bacon fat with some good earthiness. On the palate the blackberry fruit comes through with some subtle black truffle and a heap of black olive, roasted meat and surprising minerality / crushed rocks. Finish is solid and overall, this is a slam dunk wine for fans of Rhone Syrah. And based on this showing, no pressing need to drink anytime soon.

Posted from CellarTracker

1998 Alain Voge Cornas (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas)

When I first opened this, I thought the bottle was flawed. Very acidic right out of the bottle and seemed more advanced than I would have guessed at age ten. With air, the wine improved. It filled out, got darker, the fruit turned plusher, and the acid retreated. This is a truly interesting expression of Syrah in that it faintly reminds of CdP by virtue of garrigue and provencal herb notes. It does have the more classical dark fruit and pepper notes, though. After 3 days of being open, this just now beginning to show its best. Nose has opened up to show some licorice, roasted herbs, and beef blood. Nice and elegant on the palate. No thickness and the texture is more like Burgundy than CdP...silky. It is somewhat rustic in style though, and some might find this angular...I like it...what can I say. A great buy at $20 on auction, but it would be too much for the quality at the going retail of about $40-$50.

1998 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph)

Drank this with home-made cassoulet tonight. Brilliant wine and brilliant food/wine pairing. Started out very acidic right out of the bottle, but with air, the fruit bulked up, and the tannin and acidity melted into the wine's structure perfectly. Drinking this is like drinking liquid black cured olives, rosemary, meat juices, bacon fat, and crushed rock. Although there is plenty of black fruit in this wine, the earthiness, saline component, and texture are the drivers of this wine. At $20 per bottle, this is one of my best buys ever.

2003 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

The best Crozes-Hermitage I have ever had. Incredibly plush and almost kinky in nature, this still manages to show some real refinement and elegance despite its amazing fruit. Everything in perfect balance, and I really mean perfect balance. Finishes as good as any red wine I've had this year. Even at this young age, the inside of the bottle is already coated with sediment. Amazing wine, great value, insane QPR. The best part is that I think it'll hold and improve for many years.

2003 E. Guigal Crozes-Hermitage (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage)

Another bottle that showed lean and weak the first night. With 2 days of air on it, what a transformation. Much more weight now with impressively sweet fruit and some flavors of dry cured black olives and a hint of bacon fat. Great finish and medium weight texture. I really love this wine. Consumed with grilled NY strip steak tonight and went fabulously with it.