Vouvrays and southern Rhones
Quite the turnout with the local Fort Collins crowd and great time, food, wine and company. All wines served double blind.
Vouvrays
A great flight and stylistically, these are all over the map. The 2005 Domaine Le Capitaines Vouvray Cuvée Adrien has some serious sweetness and could be a new world Gewürztraminer where as the 2006 Champalou Vouvray was a ripe, floral viognier look alike. The 2005 Marc Bredif Vouvray was controversial and I think a large percentage of the table actively disliked it or even thought it was flawed. The longer this sat in the glass though the more interesting it became and the oringinal funk blew off leaving beautiful, earthy fruit, minerals and ripe herb notes that I thoroughly enjoyed.
- 2005 Domaine Le Capitaines Vouvray Cuvée Adrien - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray
While this comes across as very sweet on the finish, it’s delicious with ripe fruit, medium body, nice texture and a long, clean finish. Just when I thought there was too much sweetness on the finish, this cleaned up with nice acidity and grip.(88 pts.) - 2005 Marc Brédif Vouvray - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray
This started off with a strange, funky and sharp nose but continued to open up with air and by the end of the evening, was complex, nuanced and interesting. The nose shows earthy fruit notes that are supported by minerals and ripe herbacous notes. The palate is medium bodied and has sweet fruit, nice balance, a clean, weighty texture and nice length. Certainly a controversial wine given the slightly funky and herbal aromas on the nose but I like it.(89 pts.) - 2006 Champalou Vouvray - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray
This is very viognier like and possesses a big, floral scented bouquet of quince, lemon, white flowers and mineral aromas. Certainly not a shy wine, this is heady and ripe but holds everything together and is medium bodied with rich fruit, a beautiful, oily texture and a clean, long finish. This certainly has some omph and shows ripe fruit but it finishes dry and is well balanced. Very enjoyable.(89 pts.)
Domaine La Garrigue
The Vacqueyras bottling sees 18 months in foudre where as the Cuvee Romaine see 12 months primarily in tank and my goal with this flight was to show the differences between these elevages. Unfortunately, I had a hard time seeing a consistent difference between these wines that I could attribute to it… Surprisingly, in both cases the Vacqueyras seemed more concentrated and structured and given the blends (80% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre for the Vacqueyras & 65% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre and 10% Syrah for the Cuvee Romaine), I would have expected the opposite. I was really impressed with the 2004 Domaine La Garrigue Vacqueyras and thought it showed the best mix of concentrated fruit and drinkability. The group liked the 2004 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine more than me and while I do enjoy the massive blast of spice it delivers, I always find that this has just a touch more brett than I’m happy with. Both the 2005 Domaine La Garrigue Vacqueyras and the 2005 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine were delicious, albeit, young, tight and tannic. The 2005 Cuvee Romaine was the softer of the two and easier to drink on this night.
- 2004 Domaine La Garrigue Vacqueyras - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Vacqueyras
A really impressive bottle of wine that shows rich black cherry, licorice, plum and peppery earth aromas. Medium to full bodied in the mouth and this possesses some of that old vine, sappy texture that really adds depth and grip. Well balanced and this finishes with ripe tannins on the long finish. With air, this shows more black pepper and mineral notes.(91 pts.) - 2004 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône
Just packed with massive amounts of spice, leather and earth notes, this lacks a little fruit at first but with air, sweetens up and is really enjoyable to drink. Medium bodied, textured and well balanced, this does show slightly drying tannins on the finish and is not something I would hold for long.(88 pts.) - 2005 Domaine La Garrigue Vacqueyras - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Vacqueyras
Dark, earthy and peppery, this boasts rich aromas of black cherry, plum sauce, earth and pepper on the nose. The palate is medium bodied, structured and shows impressive depth on the finish. This bottle was quite a bit different than the previous bottle and was very tight and slightly unforgiving with some serious tannins kicking in on the finish.(89 pts.) - 2005 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône
An outstanding wine that shows sweet black cherry notes mixed with subtle leather, spice and ripe herb aromas. The palate is medium to full bodied and is concentrated, textured and long. Drinking extremely well but this has enough structure to hold for quite some time.(90 pts.)
Chateauneuf du Pape
I’ve had both of these wines multiple times and still didn’t have a clue what these were. The 2003 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape created some discussion and while I’m convinced the wine was corked, others weren’t so sure. Sill, the wine is fabulous and I wish I had a case of this in the cellar. The 2005 Domaine de Cristia Châteauneuf-du-Pape was surprisingly high toned and slightly volatile at first but it drastically improved with air. Rich, lush and just a beautiful wine.
- 2003 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
While this wine was corked, it still showed more than enough fruit and substance to be enjoyable. The nose has beautiful black cherry and raspberry aromas mixed with spice, earth, iron and plum notes. Medium to full bodied with concentrated fruit, low acidity and subtle tannins on the long finish. NR (flawed) - 2005 Domaine de Cristia Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Very bright and almost high toned at first, this really improved with air and I think would have shown even better with a decent decant. The nose is ripe, clean and packed with cherry, plum, spice and vanilla notes and there’s an almost jammy character to the fruit. Medium bodied, this filled in with air and shows nice acidity, rich, sweet fruit, a soft texture and subtle tannins on the long finish.(90 pts.)