The stars aligned on March 14, and I was able to gather a great group of ten people, including a couple of local wine-makers, a wine distributor and a wine author, to our home in the Catskills mountains to taste through some 1998 Rhônes a decade (and a bit) after the vintage. I had volunteered to supply the southern Rhones and some guests were able to add northern Rhônes from the same vintage. Being that this was a social occasion and a dinner, notes are inherently less detailed than usual. (You should be thankful!) All wines 1998 unless noted. I’ve added school grades from a personal perspective.
JL CHAVE HERMITAGE BLANC
The most controversial wine of the night by a long shot. A golden, clear color, the nose – to me – was deliciously honeyed and instantly alluring. Low acidity, but heavenly body of nuts (almonds?), crème fraiche, hint of lemon zest, honey and melon. I found it very well rounded and wonderfully unique, if initially served a touch warm. Others were less convinced; a Burgundy fan dismissed it compared to the delicacies of his chosen region, and our wine writer was similarly underwhelmed, suggested it lacked definition, and certainly using the word flabby. He was drinking from his own sharply-curved Burgundy class to taste; at the wine provider’s insistence, he switched to the Riedel Chianti/Zinfandel glass I use for everyday tasting, and revised his opinion immediately. We all swapped and sniffed; the wine was much more focused in the Chiant glass than in his Burgundy one. I suspected that others in the room remained a little underwhelmed regardless of which glass they were drinking from, but when two of us went back to this wine after it had been in the fridge for a while, we were overjoyed. It was singing a veritable wine opera, heading off in all kinds of textured, honeyed directions. May even have been wine of the night for the two of us. I would love to have more Chave blancs to compare it to. FWIW, I gather the Chave Hermitage is predominantly Marsanne. A-
GILLES ROBIN CROZES HERMITAGE CUVEE ALBERIC BOUVET.
Color softened to the point of being opaque. The only wine we didn’t decant, it gave up significant sediment. Nutty, soft, leathery. Light pepper, violets and delicate notes of olive. Drinking just deliciously – a model of a mature wine. But absolutely staring down a sharp precipice to the graveyard. Drink up. B
JL CHAVE HERMITAGE ROUGE
Corked! Out comes a back-up bottle. Not corked! It was that kind of night – the only corked wine had a back-up. Double decanted an hour or more before we tasted. Fascinating to observe following straight on from the teetering Crozes of the same vintage. The color to this was still a dark dark red and though the nose was not initially giving much away, the wine was everything you could ask for at this point in its development. The same peppers, olives and violets as above, but this one was much more primary, with that distinctly Syrah combination of body and finesse, beauty and intellect. Our wine writer (the same one who disliked the Blanc) named it his wine of the night. I would decline that honor from the perspective that it still has so many years to go before it hits its peak. A-.
Two bottles of a mystery wine made their way to the table with dinner. We were told they were in the spirit of the event if not the letter. I hoped for some Esprit de Beaucastel but the wine was far too overpowering even for California. The color was bordering on black, it was clearly laden with oak, touched up with mint, some blackcurrants and rich sweet fruit. We quickly pegged it for Australian Grenache and to my surprise, when asked if I knew of an Australian producer who bottled it as an individual grape, I blurted out “something Hills.” It was a CLARENDON HILLS, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, BLEWITT SPRINGS GRENACHE 2004. I have to say, bluntly, that this was everything I dislike about modern “international” wine: overpowering, totally lacking in subtlety, high in alcohol and oak without great balance. You could feel yourself getting drunk as you sipped on it. To nobody’s surprise, it’s a Parker favorite and retails for $75. I’ll stick to my Châteauneuf du Papes thanks. B-
The advantage of this modern monstrosity showing as and when it did was that it portrayed the 1998 Southern Rhones in a much better light. And compared not just to the Clarendon Hills but to the wines that followed, the LES GOUBERTS GIGONDAS was a model of old-school winemaking. Approx 65% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 10% Mourvèdre with some Cinsault and a touch of Clairette. Grapes both from sandy gravely soil around the winery, and from the clay/limestone soils of the Dentelles de Montmirail. Undergoes 28-day maceration, aged almost two years exclusively in cement vats.
Though the cork was nearly run through, it still offered vibrant red fruit, some acidity, and a gorgeous blend of gingerbread, leather, and mushroom. I got the winery’s highly distinctive minerality in abundance and found it all perfectly balanced. It was soft, too: this was not the coarse Gigondas of fiery youth (and as I’ve tasted from this very winery in young wines). The fact that it was understated should not detract from its integrity. This was surely at or close to its peak. Solid A.
SANTA DUC CUVEE DES HAUTES GARRIGUES GIGONDAS
Apparently 80% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre, perhaps with a touch of syrah, from 50-year old vines on terraced limestone/clay hillsides called Les Hautes Garrigues.
Low yield of just one-half tone of fruit per acre. I had thought twice about opening this, knowing that it was probably the biggest of all my Gigondas 98s and likely to last many years longer. But I trusted it might make a good comparison to the Châteauneuf du Pape that would follow. It didn’t. Very purple color that immediately emitted traces of the 15.5% alcohol. Very lengthy legs, going nowhere in a hurry. Raisins, licorice, enormous concentration and extract. Palate-soaking tannins. I could taste the oak as much as I could the rich ripe fruit. I think this could turn into a great wine assuming it eventually resolves everything that’s going on there, but that’s still five years away. Unfortunately this was my only bottle and opened well before its prime. B-.
CLOS DES PAPES CHÂTEAUNEUF DU PAPE
Mourvèdre content approx 20%, with 65% Grenache and 10% syrah, 5% other varietals. (Muscardin, Counoise, Vaccarese.) Aged 14-16 mos in barrel and large foudres. Lovely nose of gingerbread and some olive, some cassis. Earthy aromas and mushroom flavors too, with plenty minerality and, like the Les Gouberts, still an abundance of bright red fruits. Extraordinarily well-balanced. I sense it’s at its peak right now. I think it’s fair to say that those at the table lacking in Châteauneuf du Pape experience were knocked sideways by the purity and depth and elegance of this wine. I find it embarrassing that I love this appellation so much yet have such a hard time describing it: to me, Châteauneuf du Pape is not about closely defined fruit flavors as much as a combination of textures from the soil, the vineyard, the local herbs, and the way these layers all combine together. This was a textbook example. Truly harmonious. Solid A.
LE VIEUX DONJON CHÂTEAUNEUF DU PAPE
80-95 year old vines, usually 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre and Cinsault. Grapes grown organically, harvested later than most other estates, are not destemmed, go through a long maceration of up to 21 days, are aged 2 months in cement vats for and then 2 years in oak casks. The wine is bottled unfiltered and unfined.
A blockbuster of the vintage, highly praised at the time but equally recommended for lengthy laying down (I opened a couple in the early 2000s and put the rest away), I had opened this several hours earlier and double-decanted it. I couldn’t resist a taste at that point and I’m glad I did as I sense some palate fatigue was settling in by the time this hit the table. (We tasted a couple of other wines too.) At that initial taste, it was everything I ever look for in a Châteauneuf du Pape; the nose wafting a delicious combination of herbs and dark cherries and olives and raisins, clearly some earthy/saddle/leather in there, but simply dancing on the tongue with brightness and yet that silky milky finish of an aged Châteauneuf du Pape. My initial delight was purely that the wine was open and giving – I had half-suspected it to still be shut down. Served five hours later it was probably more dense and coarse than the Clos des Papes that preceded it but not by much. And I believe, ultimately, this wine has more going on, more layers of fruit and finesse and therefore a greater future. Just now coming into its own, it’s good (by my very rough untutored guess) for the best part of another decade. But, as they often say, it’s impossible to resist right now. Solid A, perhaps even an A+. Might well have been wine of the night had it been served earlier when we were fresher, though the Clos des Papes challenged likewise for the fact that it was peaking.
Although a couple of the wines were bullies, we were blessed by the general high quality and good provenance of our collection. I always enjoy theme nights – I find they keep the palate that much better focused – and stumbled up to bed feeling blessed both by my own decision to start buying and cellaring these wines a decade ago, and by the generosity of our guests who brought such fine bottles themselves. Cheers!