A great evening with good friends and good food…

• 1988 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
  This opens up with a big blast of saddle leather, spiced meat, bacon and smoky tobacco aromas and there’s little doubt that this is a mature northern rhone syrah. Complex, interesting, and with good intensity to the aromas, this has a medium bodied palate that’s integrated, soft and balanced. With air, this shows a ting too much acidity for the fruit but the sheer complexity and interest on the nose makes up for it. Beautiful but drink up. (92 pts.)
• 1999 Domaine de la Vieille Julienne Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Young and tight on the nose, this 1999 is still a young pup with a long life ahead of it. The nose shows rich black cherry, new leather, garrigue and graphite notes but it’s not singing either and takes some coaxing. It does deliver on the palate though and is medium to full bodied, concentrated, pure and long. The purity to the fruit is notable as is the depth on the mid-palate and the length. This opened up with air but should flesh out and show more complexity with air.  (94+ pts.)
• 1995 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Rich and meaty, this is another pup that needs another 10+ years in the cellar to show all that is has. The nose is rich, balanced and interesting with raspberry and earthy, meaty notes that lead into a medium bodied palate. Balanced, structured and long, this has rich fruit, a solid mid-palate and a long finish. Give it another 5 years and then drink it over the next 10 to 15.  (92+ pts.)
• 1986 Château d’Yquem - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
  Soft, smooth and amazingly drinkable this has subtle apricot, vanilla custard and brown sugar aromas on the nose that lead into a full bodied palate. While I thought this lacked a little complexity, the palate was beautiful with full body, perfect balance, a smooth, lush texture and a long finish. Just stunning and the damn bottle was empty before I knew it. (96 pts.)

This aptly name domaine is located north of Avignon in the town of Cairanne and is composed of 25 hectare (2 around the town of Lagarde Pareol and 23 in Cairanne.) The cellar was built in 1956 (origins go back to the 19th century) but the first wine wasn’t produced until 1986.

Both of these bottles were sucked down over two days with dinners, movies, crazy wife (back to work after vacation) and all. The 2005 Domaine Boisson Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne really blossomed on the second day and is fantastic for current drinking. Supple, pure, balanced; this isn’t a blockbuster and dare I say, could be considered a food wine with its easy going, gulpable style (although it’s better than that.) I’m a fan but while this showed well right from the bottle, it had a funky phase with after about an hour or so of air. Beautiful the next day though.
The single vineyard 2006 Domaine Boisson Côtes du Rhône Villages Clos de la Brussiere is a serious wine with more apparent depth and structure and is worth hanging onto for a year or two or 5+. Rich, balanced, pure and well made, this is certainly approachable now but I was pouring two glasses
of the Cairanne to one of this… Try this wine though; it’s worth the price of admission.

This is my first exposure to this domaine but I’m impressed and these are worth checking out. Both wines shared a clean, well made character to go along with admirable balance and beautiful fruit.

• 2005 Domaine Boisson Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne
  This blend of 50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 20% Mourvedere and 10% Carignan comes from a south facing, limestone based vineyard and offers up subtle cherry and strawberry aromas to go along with garrigue, minerals, stone and earthy notes. The palate is medium bodied and well balanced with a supple texture, nice precision, pure fruit and a medium length finish where some fine grained tannins show up. This closed up aromatically with about an hour of air but is a fantastic, gulpable and beautifully
  made cote du rhone to drink over the next 5+ years. This was even better on the second day. (89 pts.)
• 2006 Domaine Boisson Côtes du Rhône Villages Clos de la Brussiere - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages
  Pretty damn impressive, this comes from 45 year old vines and is a blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% carignan and the vineyard is closed/walled in enough to warrant the clos designation. On the nose, this offers up sweet black cherries, raspberries and perfumed floral notes mixed with minerals and maybe even a hint of barrique. This really fleshes out with air and shows fantastic, pure, rich fruit. The palate is medium to full bodied with rich fruit, a stony, mineral core, nice acidity and a medium to long finish. Balanced, well made wine appears to be a trait of this producer and this is worth seeking out. (91 pts.)