WTN: Domaine de Trevallon Tasting (1986-2005)

[David M. Bueker]

I had always wanted to taste the wines of Domaine de Trevallon. One of the guys in my tasting group did an entire evening of the wines, but there was a catch - it was blind & we had no idea we were tasting Trevallon.

The evening started with the Pol Roger I reported on elsewhere.

We were then served the 2006 Domaine de Trevallon Blanc blind. It was very cold & thus rather inexpressive, except for some oak. Later on, as it warmed, it took on some character of those skin-contact whites. I really liked the palate depth and richness once it warmed. Delicious wine - too bad about the price.

Then it was on to 8 vintages of the Trevallon red wine. I will just list my thoughts next to the year of the vintage:

1986: Very leathery, with not much fruit, but a floral (roses?) element. A bit tired.

1990: A distinct note of roasted red peppers. Also quite leathery, but richer and more complete. Very good.

1991: Blood, iron & again that leathery aroma. Still not much in the way of fruit, but I like the depth here. A bit tannic.

1995: Very bright in palate impression & some back end cherry fruit to go along with turned earth dimensions. tannins add structure, but they are in balance.

1998: Right on the front end there is a bright cherry aspect. This is backed up by earth, dried leaves & other, similar scents. Very good wine here & one of my favorites of the evening.

1998 Domaine Baruel Cevennes Roquebelle: More of a black fruit impression, good structure and balance. Drinking very well. Again a top wine of the evening. Figures that it's a ringer.

2003: Very dark, ripe fruit, almost too ripe & in fact it's a bit alcoholic on the back end. No surprise when it was revealed as a 2003.

2005: Wow - is this a barrel sample? Very rich & tannic, with tons of fruit and none of the earthy elements. Maybe there is a little herb in the background, but it's really just primary.

I don't think my notes really convey it, but I liked the wines very much. I am not sure I would spend the tariff (approx. $50 or so) as there are many other wines from Southern France that I enjoy as much or more. Still it's an interesting wine that I enjoyed drinking.

Thanks for the notes, David. Nice to read notes from a vertical that went back to such rather old vintages, in particular since I am planning to hold a similar tasting with our wine club, AuZone, in about a year. I've been collecting Trevallon for quite some while, so I also have some older vintages, but fail to remember which ones right now. From your notes I get the impression that this is a wine that does not gain much from being kept more than about 10-15 years, which agrees with my experiences. In fact it was some time since I had any Trevaillon, but I think I remember having noted earthy notes of beetroots in the older ones. Could you agree with that?

Cheers,
Anders

[David M. Bueker]

I can seem the beetroot idea. I was getting a richness to the earthy notes.

I am a big fan of Trévallon and have notes somewhere, perhaps manuscript, on a vertical a few years ago. My current favourite is 1989 and there is a WTN of mine in the archive from a few months ago; pity it wasn't in your line-up. I would be less reticent than Anders about snapping up a 15+ year old bottle if I found one.

Baruel 96 was on offer in London a few weeks ago for <£6/bottle; few realise how good it was in Rainer Pfefferkorn's days.