Topic: TN: Three Rhône wines
Author: David
Date: Mon Jan 28 11:04:52 2002
For my "verbal rating system", see postscript, if necessary.

Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc 1997
Medium-plus golden colour with green reflexes. Tender walnuttiness and strawy bee''s wax on the nose, subdued melony-quincy pear or apple juice aroma, acacia and linden flower honey, soft almost Grüner Veltliner-like spiciness, later subtle roasted bacon and Provençal herbs faintly reminiscent of Syrah from Côte-Rôtie, white blossoms. Very glyceric on the palate, lowish acidity, but balance is kept by high (not hot!) alcohol and an apple-peely tannic dryness or rather walnut peel bitterness. Chalky-stony minerality on the long finish. A bit peachier perhaps 12 hours later, fresher and yet longer too, plus that banana leaf bitter note seems more integrated and the acidity not quite so low. Outstanding, if not entirely my cup of tea, although for a low-acid Marsanne-Rousanne blend this is almost, if not really, light on its feet. I liked this better day after day out of the fridge.

Jean-Paul & Jean-Luc Jamet Côte-Rotie 1999
Nearly opaque ruby-purple. On the nose again (as in the ''98) the kind of spiced and air-dried horse meat we call "Mostbröckli" in eastern Switzerland, smoky bacon fat, inky-leady blackcurrant and minor prune, roasted sage and rosemary, licorice and pansy, and some mustard seed. With airing more and more precise black olive. On the palate superlative concentration and highly extracted, with thick cough drop-like crystallized blackcurrant that''s extraordinarily ripe and firm at once, quite highly glyceric density, full-bodied and powerful but not the least bit alcoholic at just 12.7 %, huge mouthcoating and teeth-furring tannin and extract that miraculously remains short of grainy, if salty with minerality, fine spring onion-scented acidity. Makes one''s gums taste of smoked bacon fat for hours on end. I''d rather drink some of the 1998 today, but what a great cellar candidate this is! A little rounder after 24 hours in the decanter, but still so young and muscular. Still a fair QPR, rare for wine on this quality level. Should make for a spectacularly well-balanced, complex and ripely sweet wine when it approaches maturity. Outstanding plus? Ph here reportedly is 3.95.

Château de la Nerthe Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1998
Full minimally purplish ruby. At first quite subdued aromas of animal fur (Mourvèdre?) and soft Indian and brown spice, some plump plum and morello fruit, strong sage and estragon notes and a little black pepper. Concentrated fruit on the palate is consistent with the nose, adding a little frozen raspberry, plus notes of charcoal and grilled pork, low acidity but spreading lightly dry tannin, a long finish leaving behind an inky fruit aftertaste. Completely different in style, but on about the same outstanding quality level in this vintage as André Brunel''s more Grenache-stressing Les Cailloux.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

P.S.
I have discontinued divulging numerical scores on this board (in order to avoid e-mails solely concentrating on them, since I''d really rather talk about the wines themselves). For those who have problems interpreting my "verbal scoring", the numerical correspondences are as follows:

79 and below = Not good (i.e. no need to figure out exactly)
80 - 84 = Good (same as 16 and over in the European 20-point system)
85 - 89 = Very good (same as 17 and over; I sometimes use Excellent to indicate 88 - 89, or almost-outstanding)
90 - 94 = Outstanding (same as 18 and over)
95 - 99 = Great (or Classic, same as 19 and over)
100 = Perfect (20/20)

Note I will rarely buy wine below my own Excellent (that''s where an individual wine starts standing out of the mass of technically well-made wine at all) rating except for an occasional and there truly exceptional QPR. If it''s costly, it had better be at least outstanding!