Words from KL

L

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton
Mr. Kermit Lynch presented a vertical of his Gigondas in nyc recently, and spoke for about 2 hours to the assembled.

A couple of take away points:

The Allemand NoSO2 bottling now has SO2 added at bottling (at least the ones Kermit buys). So there basically is no longer an Allemand NoSO2 bottling for American drinkers. Lapierre is the only producer in his portfolio making a wine with no added sulphur. KL said he did import three vintages of Chauvet wines before Chauvet died, and that he never had a problem with those wines going off, but also that Chauvet was a trained chemist.

Kermit said that his proclivity towards picking certain lots of a wine from his growers and having those bottled for his import really stemmed out of his non-filtration stance. Everybody was filtering everthing, in the Kermit re-tell of history, and he asked his growers to set aside some wine not to be filtered for his purchase. Then it sort of morphed into, well, can you make that barrel the barrel you set aside, etc.

The 2005 Domaine Les Pallieres Gigondas is one for the ages. Impeccable balance.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Words from KLMr. Kermit Lynch presented a vertical of his Gigondas in nyc recently, and spoke for about 2 hours to the assembled.

The 2005 Domaine Les Pallieres Gigondas is one for the ages. Impeccable balance.
Click to expand...

I was sorry to have missed it. I heard it was standing room only for employees. I was on my back from France, though.

While I like the '05, I do prefer the '04. I find the '05 quite a bit more roasted and enjoy the freshness of the '04 a little more.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Words from KLMr. Kermit Lynch presented a vertical of his Gigondas in nyc recently, and spoke for about 2 hours to the assembled.

A couple of take away points:

The Allemand NoSO2 bottling now has SO2 added at bottling (at least the ones Kermit buys). So there basically is no longer an Allemand NoSO2 bottling for American drinkers.
Click to expand...

Who can afford to buy Allemand's Sans Soufre through Kermit anymore, anyway?
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:

I was sorry to have missed it. I heard it was standing room only for employees.
Click to expand...

It was a packed house. I think that is partly because he so rarely does events in nyc. I believe that the last time was 3 years ago, and then 10 years before that.

If his daughter hadn't decided to attend NYU we would probably still never see him.
 
What else can you tell me about the Les Pallieres? Are those Kermit's feelings or yours? We brought a few cases into work for a class on the Rhone were doing and I am interested in taking a few home if they're worth the tag.
 
Kelly -- One thing to understand about Pallires is that it is somewhat atypical of Gigondas because the vines are higher up than those of most other Gigodas. As a result, Pallires gives a finer wine and has long been called the Burgundy of Gigondas. It has historically been considered one of the very top Gigondas.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Kelly -- One thing to understand about Pallires is that it is somewhat atypical of Gigondas because the vines are higher up than those of most other Gigodas. As a result, Pallires gives a finer wine and has long been called the Burgundy of Gigondas. It has historically been considered one of the very top Gigondas.
Click to expand...

While I like the Pallieres made by the Brunels very much, I don't really find it similar to the one I first used to buy back in the mid 80s. That one was a more rustic Gigondas, with earthier more olivier notes. If that one was called a Burgundy of Gigondas, I don't see it. But I understand the wines are from the same vineyards. Also, while the vineyards up around the Dentelles are sought after, if this is what you mean by "higher up," they are hardly rare. Both Cayron and Pourra have vineyards at high altitudes. I have a vague memory that some of the parcels in Gour de Chaul are also higher up, though I will take correction on that.
 
originally posted by Zachary Ross:
Laurence Olivier? Gielgudas?
Click to expand...

Given that Olivier made overacting and acting without reference to the text of the play he was acting in a high art (and I do mean this as a compliment), I guess there is a sorta kinda analogy with rustic Gigondas. John Gielgud is another matter entirely. Much more of a Loire cab franc actor, given that his idiosyncracies were always in the service of an impressive literary intelligence (I make that judgment entirely from the acting and not any biographical information; for all I know, he didn't know how to read).
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Kelly -- One thing to understand about Pallires is that it is somewhat atypical of Gigondas because the vines are higher up than those of most other Gigodas. As a result, Pallires gives a finer wine and has long been called the Burgundy of Gigondas. It has historically been considered one of the very top Gigondas.
Click to expand...

While I like the Pallieres made by the Brunels very much, I don't really find it similar to the one I first used to buy back in the mid 80s. That one was a more rustic Gigondas, with earthier more olivier notes. If that one was called a Burgundy of Gigondas, I don't see it. But I understand the wines are from the same vineyards. Also, while the vineyards up around the Dentelles are sought after, if this is what you mean by "higher up," they are hardly rare. Both Cayron and Pourra have vineyards at high altitudes. I have a vague memory that some of the parcels in Gour de Chaul are also higher up, though I will take correction on that.
Click to expand...
Jonathan -- I realize that there are other vines in the Dentelles. But are there others made exclusively from vines there? And how long have those other vines been there?

I agree that Pallires is quite different from the wines made when Roux owned the property. Among other things, in those days, the wine was kept for five years in large cement tanks built into the floor. But for the time and in the context of Gigondas at that time, the designation as Burgundian made eminent sense to me. Different tastes, different perceptions.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Zachary Ross:
Laurence Olivier? Gielgudas?
Click to expand...

Given that Olivier made overacting and acting without reference to the text of the play he was acting in a high art (and I do mean this as a compliment), I guess there is a sorta kinda analogy with rustic Gigondas. John Gielgud is another matter entirely. Much more of a Loire cab franc actor, given that his idiosyncracies were always in the service of an impressive literary intelligence (I make that judgment entirely from the acting and not any biographical information; for all I know, he didn't know how to read).
Click to expand...

Gielgud can only be Burgundy. Richardson, he's Loire cab franc. Or was.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Kelly -- One thing to understand about Pallires is that it is somewhat atypical of Gigondas because the vines are higher up than those of most other Gigodas. As a result, Pallires gives a finer wine and has long been called the Burgundy of Gigondas. It has historically been considered one of the very top Gigondas.
Click to expand...

While I like the Pallieres made by the Brunels very much, I don't really find it similar to the one I first used to buy back in the mid 80s. That one was a more rustic Gigondas, with earthier more olivier notes. If that one was called a Burgundy of Gigondas, I don't see it. But I understand the wines are from the same vineyards. Also, while the vineyards up around the Dentelles are sought after, if this is what you mean by "higher up," they are hardly rare. Both Cayron and Pourra have vineyards at high altitudes. I have a vague memory that some of the parcels in Gour de Chaul are also higher up, though I will take correction on that.
Click to expand...
Jonathan -- I realize that there are other vines in the Dentelles. But are there others made exclusively from vines there? And how long have those other vines been there?

I agree that Pallires is quite different from the wines made when Roux owned the property. Among other things, in those days, the wine was kept for five years in large cement tanks built into the floor. But for the time and in the context of Gigondas at that time, the designation as Burgundian made eminent sense to me. Different tastes, different perceptions.
Click to expand...

I know of two special cuvees made entirely from vineyards in the Dentelles, Brusset's Haut de Montimirail and Bastide St. Vincent's Costeveilles. I think both of these are too marked by new oak, though. I don't know how old the Brusset vines are but he has been making that cuvee since 87 or 88. The Bastide St. Vincent must be around 60 years old since he told me when he first bottled it, in 99, that they were in their 50s.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:

I know of two special cuvees made entirely from vineyards in the Dentelles, Brusset's Haut de Montimirail and Bastide St. Vincent's Costeveilles. I think both of these are too marked by new oak, though. I don't know how old the Brusset vines are but he has been making that cuvee since 87 or 88. The Bastide St. Vincent must be around 60 years old since he told me when he first bottled it, in 99, that they were in their 50s.
Click to expand...
OK, well the title Burgundy of Gigondas applied to Pallires would predate the existence of those bottlings.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Words from KLMr. Kermit Lynch presented a vertical of his Gigondas in nyc recently, and spoke for about 2 hours to the assembled.

A couple of take away points:

The Allemand NoSO2 bottling now has SO2 added at bottling (at least the ones Kermit buys). So there basically is no longer an Allemand NoSO2 bottling for American drinkers. Lapierre is the only producer in his portfolio making a wine with no added sulphur. KL said he did import three vintages of Chauvet wines before Chauvet died, and that he never had a problem with those wines going off, but also that Chauvet was a trained chemist.

Kermit said that his proclivity towards picking certain lots of a wine from his growers and having those bottled for his import really stemmed out of his non-filtration stance. Everybody was filtering everthing, in the Kermit re-tell of history, and he asked his growers to set aside some wine not to be filtered for his purchase. Then it sort of morphed into, well, can you make that barrel the barrel you set aside, etc.

The 2005 Domaine Les Pallieres Gigondas is one for the ages. Impeccable balance.
Click to expand...
Price on the 2005 Les Pallieres?
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:

The Allemand NoSO2 bottling now has SO2 added at bottling (at least the ones Kermit buys). So there basically is no longer an Allemand NoSO2 bottling for American drinkers.
Click to expand...

Parce que...?
 
Doesn't Boussiere's wines come from vines mostly, if not exclusively, up high in the Dentelles? Not that anything I've tried has been especially Burgundian, apart, oddly, from 2003.
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Is everyone here stalking Kermit Lynch?
Click to expand...

No, some of us prefer to subscribe to the RSS feed that keeps us up to date on Dressner's whereabouts via the GPS tracker on his ankle bracelet.

-Eden (it used to be that KL wouldn't even venture across the bay to SF to talk about wine, now he's flying across the country!)
 
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