Tasting Notes (Jan. 10): Rhone Wines

I don't know much about the Rhone river itself--just a few encyclopedia-level facts about its origin, course, and cultural significance--but I have floated on it. Or, rather, I've floated on the wines produced in the valley it cuts from Lyons to the Mediterranean sea. Bold, rich, assertive, and utterly distinctive, the wines of France's Rhone valley never fail to sweep me up in a torrent of berries, earth, and meaty flavors and aromas. All I can do, then, is hang on and enjoy the rapids.

1. Jaboulet Crozes-Hermitage White 2003 ($20.99/bottle)
Medium-yellow straw color, with a nose of fresh hay, sea air, and smoky spice. Tasty cantaloupe and spicy herbs fill out the palate. Medium-bodied wine with a pleasant, lightly oily texture. Very dry, long finish is laced with white pepper.

2. Guigal Condrieu 2005 ($49.99/bottle)
Half a shade darker than the Crozes-Hermitage, with a nose of faint musk, green apple, and peppermint. There's a nice symmetry between the aromas and the flavors of musk, bitter herbs, and peppermint to finish. Medium-full body, with some glycerine providing a rich mouthfeel.

3. Perraud Cornas "Les Coteaux" 2000 ($26.99/bottle)
The in-your-face nose of this wine reveals aromas of blackberry fruit, pencil shavings, and just a whiff of barnyard. On the palate one gets a blast of rustic wild berries, brambles, graphite, and pepper. Drying tannins on the finish. A big wine for big appetites. Try this with lamb or a long-simmered stew.

4. Domaine Lafond Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2005 ($45.99/bottle)
This wine offers a tantalizing nose of black and blue berries, violets, caramel, and minerals. On the palate it's a little tight yet, with a big, firm tannic structure. Even now, though, this CdP is a pleasure to drink, with delicious flavors of ripe berry and cassis, exotic spice, and graphite for days. Mouthfilling, rich, and big. Decant for several hours and drink now or cellar for 5-10 years.

5. Chapoutier La Bernardine Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2005 ($58.99/bottle)
Great nose of forest floor, pencil lead, and sweet spice. This wine is dark, peppery, and meaty, with a veeeeeery long, minty finish revealing a black olive note after about a minute. Well-integrated tannins make this delicious CdP more accessible right now than the Lafond, but in a few years I think the Lafond will shine brighter. (So you'd better buy one of each.)

6. Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle 1998 ($125.99/bottle)
Bill nailed this one in his recent post on the top wines poured at Stimmel's during 2007. This wine "taxed my brain," as Bill put it, more than any other wine of the night, and maybe more than any other wine, period. I smelled it for 10 minutes and was still discovering new aromas--a strong core of cedar shavings supports waves of sweet cherry, stewed meat, olives, cooked greens, caramel, and graphite, and some other sensations I can't begin to put into words. I almost hated to move on to tasting, but when I did I discovered a medium-bodied, ultra smooth, satiny wine with flavors of very ripe dark fruits, a blast of pepper, cedar, smoke, and graphite and a long, peppery, mineral-laden finish. The only off note was a tart acidity between the initial rush of flavors and the long finish.

7. Banyuls 1947 ($149.99/bottle)
The color of black tea, this dessert wine features rich, meaty aromas of caramel, whiskey, and spiced orange. The nose is paralleled nicely by flavors of caramel, vanilla, coffee, and orange peel wrapped in a surprisingly lithe texture. This wine is like a lighter-bodied port--perfect after dinner on a summer evening when the weather is more evocative of Cannes than Canturbury.