Opinionated About Dining

Six Months of Wine

                                                                       

                                                                                       

                                                                                                 

                  

I managed to drink a little bit of wine over the last six months. Don't ask to see my liver. I will say that it didn't feel like a lot, but it certainly looks like it. The following list includes wines that I drank domestically, as well as wines from my recent trip to Europe. Most of the wines were consumed at dinners. But the recent wines from the Northern Rhone were tasted at the Marche au Vin in Ampuis in January, and the later vintage Cotat's were tasted at the winery a few days before the Marche. I also attended a forty person BYO tasting in Westchester where I tasted a few dozen wines. All in all it was pretty good drinking. I hope you enjoy the notes.

                                                                                       

Loads of Wine Tasting Notes

         

                                                                               

                      

Please forgive me but I have been late in posting my wine tasting notes. Many of these notes date back to the springtime.  A number of them come from a trip to France and Spain back in April where, in spite of the bad exchange rate, I found great bargains on many of the wine lists of top restaurants. In particular, I had a good run of Clos St. Hunes, with examples from 1973, 1979, and 1982. I also had a spate of unbelievable Riojas at local tastings, including great bottles from the 1925, 1928, 1947, and 1949 vintages. Of course, let's not forget  a number of other stunning bottles from the various regions I enjoy drinking. And while I know reading about them is not the same as tasting the wines, I hope these notes convey the feeling of drinking them.

Northern Rhone

1988 Guigal Côte Rotie La Turque - Great bottle of wine. Beautiful nose of roses and violets. An intense core of ripe, sweet fruit. Best La Turque ever. A+

1988 Guigal La Landonne - Tremendous stucture. Really ripe. Good deep blackberry spice flavor with creamy oak on 45 second finish. Has years and years to go. A+

1998 Chave Hermitage Cuvee Cathleen - Yowza. An intense amount of spicy fruit. Some people do not like this style but I was completely seduced. A+

1991 Guigal La Mouline - Beautiful ripe fruit and a deep smoky flavor. Best Mouline of the '90s. A

1985 Guigal La Landonne - Best Landonne when you assess current drinkability. Large and mouthfilling. Lacked the class of the '88. A

1991 Jamet Cote Rotie - Lots of power. And lots of extraction and ripeness. Trending towards a La La. Drinking perfectly with an hour decant. A

1991 Ogier Cote Rotie - Yowza. Mint, black olives, and bacon fat. Great juice. A

1998 Guigal La Landonne - Great structure that really smacked you in the face. Pepper and sweet on the palate but not cloying. Great juice. A

1997 Chapoutier Vin de Paille - Fantastic. So thick you could polish your car with it. Sweet but not cloying. A

1991 Guigal La Landonne - Full bodied. Typical '91 ripeness and flavor profile. Easy to drink. A-

1983 Guigal La Landonne – Mossy leaves. Huge wine, gigantic with lots of tannin left. Could be the longest lasting of the Landonnes. A-

1998 Jamet Cote Rotie – Two bottles. Classic CR and amazing structure. Violets and bacon fat. My favorite of the post '91 Jamets. A-

1999 Jamet Cote Rotie - Again had this in France and the U.S. Ripe and exotic. Not sure how this will age. It could turn out to be like the '91. A-

1990 Guigal La Mouline - Excellent bottle. Not as good as the '88 but well worth owning A-

1989 Chave Hermitage - Very good but not a great Chave like the '90. I wonder how much better this is going to get. B+

1995 Rayas Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Great wine but in a bit of an awkward stage. Needs time. Normally A+ but this bottle was B+

2001 Jamet Cote Rotie - Tasted in Ampuis, big, rustic, and powerful, and from the bottle in the U.S., highly extracted and supple. Buy the French version if you can. B+

1989 Jaboulet Hermitage "La Chapelle" - Spicy, good core of fruit. Solid mid-palate. Needs 10 years and will be a beauty. B+

1995 Jamet Cote Rotie - A sleeper with a broad palate. I’ve been looking to buy more ever since the tasting. B+

1982 Guigal La Landonne - Deee-licious. Who knew? Another unheralded La La. Looking for some for my cellar. B+

1988 Jamet Cote Rotie - A gorilla of a wine. Big and brawny, old school in style and rustic. Still needs time. Funky bacon fat. B+

1990 Chapoutier Roussane Ermitage Blanc Cote Doree - Nice clean juice with lots of power and extraction. Lovely stuff. B+

2000 Chave Hermitage - Nice, but not one of the better Chaves. B

1999 Guigal La Landonne - Big wine with lots of alcohol. Very ripe but not in a sweet way. Not my favorite. B

1995 Guigal La Landonne - Not a big wine, but nice balance. Lots of pepper from riper stems. Not sure it's classic, but nice. B

1990 Guigal La Landonne - A worse version of the '91. Some people say it will exceed it, but I’m not buying the explanation or the wine. B

1989 Guigal La Landonne - The worst between '88-'91. Not a bad wine, but why buy this with better choices? B

1986 Guigal La Landonne - Perfectly mature with lots of peppery oomph to it and a nice finish. Unheralded wine and worth owning. B

1986 Guigal La Mouline - Meaty, funky, spicy, and minty. Nowhere the depth of better vintages, but well worth drinking. B

1959 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle - Very nice, still holding on. Regal but not as good as the '61. B

1979 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle - Not great wine, but very good. Perfectly marure and reasonably priced in the market. B

1989 Jamet Cote Rotie - A favorite of mine. Not a great wine, but a charmer. Good bacon fat. B-

2000 Gaillard St. Joseph Les Pierres - Big and fruity. The opposite of the Clos du Cumanaille bottling. Nice drink. C+

1985 Jaboulet Hermitage "La Chapelle" - Not a great LC, but charming from age. Worth buying if cheap. C+

2000 Jamet Cote Rotie - Better than expected. A mid-term ager. C+

1983 Jamet Cote Rotie - On its last legs, but charming to drink. C+

1987 Guigal La Landonne - Flabby. Sells at a bargain price for a La La and there’s a reason. Keep it. C

2000 Giles Barge Cote Rotie Cote Brune - Nose was a bit funky. This bottle wasn’t as good as what Barge poured himself a few years ago. C

1988 A. Clape Cornas from magnum - Light and soft. Not much going on. C

1998 Gramenon Cotes de Rhone Cuvee La Meme - Good palate but it seemed low in acid. C

1998 Chapoutier Vin de Paille - Thin and diluted compared to a '97 had at the same tasting. C

1978 Guigal La Landonne - Starting to come apart. I’ve never had a perfect example of this legendary bottle. C

1994 Jamet Cote Rotie - Lacked character. Not worth drinking in my opinion. C-

1996 Jamet Cote Rotie - Acid bath. Why buy this when there are so many other good Jamets from the '90s? C-

2000 Stephen Montez Condrieu - Highly acidic. Not my style C-

1997 Gramenon Cote de Rhone Cuvee Pascal from magnum - Disappointing and one-dimensional. I expect more in the way of sauvage from Gramenon. C-

2000 Cornas Rennaisance Clape - This wine did not impress me. Thin and underfruited. 2nd wine made from younger vines and it shows D+

1990 August Clape Cornas - Lots of funk at first which eventually blew off. But then the wine faded quickly. D+

1997 Guigal La Landonne - Terrible. Sell it off if you own it. D

1990 Chapoutier Cote Rotie Mordoree - Weak juice. A 1990 La Mouline blasted it like the Israelis could shell the Bakaar Valley. A waste of terroir. D

1990 Jamet Cote Rotie - Diluted. Sold my case. D

1978 Chave Hermitage - Tired with a lot of funk. Got worse with air. D-

1988 Chave Hermitage - Heat damaged and returned. F

1984 Jamet Cote Rotie - A horse’s ass. F