Sonoma to Lyon

V

VS

Victor de la Serna
Just a note to let other disorderlies know that this past weekend we had a gaudy wine bash in Lyon which included one Sonoma Coast syrah which surprised and rather delighted the bunch of Europeans on hand. Since I brought the wine, I was particularly happy at the outcome.

The usual Spanish suspects were up in Cte Rtie for our annual pilgrimage to the Ampuis 'march' and to visit good estates (this time, Jamet, Rostaing, Chave and Gripa) to learn from those who really know the art of growing syrah, which two of us, Jos Mara Vicente of Casa Castillo and myself, very modestly try to do too. We met our friend Lus Seabra, the Niepoort winemaker (for dry wines), and he got us a last-minute invite to a food-and-wine party at Georges Five, the new wine bar launched by Georges Dos Santos, a small dynamo of a French-Portuguese wine maniac, next door to his Antic Wine shop in Lyon, one of the most amazing of its kind in the world, with a hard-to-believe array of old vintages. Antic Wine is Niepoort's unofficial embassy in France.

We thought we'd add a few bottles to Jorge's hugely generous array served to a group of 14 including Lus Seabra, Andreas Larsson ('world's best sommelier'), part of the new team resurrecting the quasi-defunct Jaboulet, and two good-looking journalists from Norway and Sweden. (The theme was Andreas' and Jorge's birth year, 1972 - hence the number of wines from that strange vintage.) I'd (fortunately) run out of my own wines, but on arrival I found an unexpected stash of Steve Edmunds' 2001 Peay Vyd. I believe Steve has been there and knows Jorge. Well, I picked one and we drank it, and it was full of California zing yet totally understandable by the European crowd, as it had subtlety and terroir too. They lapped it up.

Just to be thorough, here's what we finally drank between 9 PM Saturday and 4 AM Sunday:

Champagne Louise Pommery 1987
Riesling Hugel 1972
Savennires Clos du Papillon Cuve Spciale Domaine du Closel 1989
Chablis 1er Cru La Forest Dauvissat 2006
St. Pray Cuve Longue Villard 2006
Ribeiro Emilio Rojo 2007
Crozes-Hermitage Domaine Roure Jaboulet 2006 (100% marsanne)
Cte-de-Beaune Villages Maison Leroy 1972
Vin de Pays Principaut dOrange Domaine Rabasse-Charavin (Corinne Couturier) 1990 (100% mourvdre)
Grands chezeaux Grand Cru Domaine Lamarche 1972
La Tche Grand Cru Domaine de la Romane-Conti 1972
Cte Rtie Jasmin 1985
Sonoma Coast Peay Vineyard Syrah Edmunds St. John 2001
Vin de Pays Principaut dOrange Domaine Rabasse-Charavin (Corinne Couturier) 1991 (100% syrah)
Jumilla Pie Franco Casa Castillo 1998
Bandol Chteau de Pibarnon 1982 (magnum)
Hermitage La Chapelle Jaboulet 1985
Colares Viuva de Jos Gomes de Silva & Filhos 1934
Hermitage La Chapelle Jaboulet 1991
Chteauneuf-du-Pape Chteau Rayas 1994
Vosne-Romane Ren Engel 1966
Pauillac 1er Cru Chteau Latour 1965
Porto LBV Niepoort 1981
Hermitage Blanc Delas 1946
 
The wine was in great shape, with that La Tche vigor and liveliness still there, and long and complex. One of the stars of a great night - actually, to be frank, too many remarkable wines at a single session, so that there was a bit of overkill in the air.
 
Sonoma Coast Peay Vineyard Syrah Edmunds St. John 2001
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Victor,
Are you certain of the maker and vineyard?
I ask because I follow Steve's wines and had never heard of him getting fruit from the Peay Vineyard. OTOH, Peay Vineyards does get fruit from there.
Best, Jim
 
Steve did one year from Peay (AFAIK) and has mentioned elsewhere that he wasn't happy with the wine.

I still have a couple & really like the wine.
 
Disappointing young wines sometimes turn into great older wines... If this was ever disappointing, it certainly isnt now!
 
originally posted by VS:
actually, to be frank, too many remarkable wines at a single session, so that there was a bit of overkill in the air.
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That's a relief. I was fearing that we'd greatly shortchanged you in NYC.
 
How was the 1946 Delas Hermitage Blanc? That's the most intriguing wine (to me at least) on an absolutely stunning list.

-Eden (and how did the '82 Pibarnon show?)
 
The Pibarnon showed well, lively and suddenly silky as good 27 year-old mourvdres should, but seemed a little lacking in personality after the deep, still fruity, rather enthralling and quite different Pie Franco (the 1998 was the first vintage made by Jos Mara from his ungrafted vineyard planted in 1942 - and he didn't bring it, he bought it right there at Antic Wine.)

I've had white Hermitages as old as the 1871 vintage, and sometimes they seem immortal, all beeswax and hazelnuts and still quite tongue-coating, and the Delas was all that, really very attractive if you like that style of white. It didn't seem 40 years older than the remarkable Chave 1985 we'd had the day before with Grard Chave, which stood up bravely to a pungent Torta del Casar, the strong runny goat's cheese from Extremadura. And the Delas was so much better than all the over-manipulated, current Delas wines we'd just tasted at the Ampuis 'march'...

My remark about Jaboulet was related to the precipitous drop in quality we've seen in the wines as the 1990s progressed, and to the sale of the winery in 2006 to Jean-Jacques Frey, a Swiss financier. The new team assembled the 2005 blends, began work in the vineyards in 2006 and has vinified the last three vintages.
 
originally posted by VS:

I've had white Hermitages as old as the 1871 vintage, and sometimes they seem immortal, all beeswax and hazelnuts and still quite tongue-coating, and the Delas was all that, really very attractive if you like that style of white. It didn't seem 40 years older than the remarkable Chave 1985 we'd had the day before with Grard Chave, which stood up bravely to a pungent Torta del Casar, the strong runny goat's cheese from Extremadura. And the Delas was so much better than all the over-manipulated, current Delas wines we'd just tasted at the Ampuis 'march'...
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Victor, do you need a personal assistant? Maybe a pool boy? Will work for table scraps...
 
It took me, oh, just about 35 years writing about wine to get a chance at an evening like this, Chris. I'll be glad to take you along as a luxury Mr. Jeeves next time I get a similar chance - but it's rather likely that it would take another 35 years for it to present itself, and I strongly doubt I'll be around that long. Then again, over the years we've had some occasions, smaller size-wise but at least as much fun in the end, haven't we? I hope there'll be more of those!
 
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