TN: Verset Vertical (May 7, 2009)

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Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
Attendees: Keith Levenberg & Tamar, Jay Miller, Robert Dentice, John Gilman, Stephen Bitterolf, Joe Salamone, John Morris, Jeff Grossman

At Keith and Tamar's place.

Keith tended the ducks in the oven while the arriving winos poured Closel 2005 Savenniere "Jalousie" (which was OK).

When we were all settled, out came the charcuterie, followed by the ducks, and all merrily consumed with lots of Cornas.

We had Cornas wines from three makers (mostly Verset, of course) over nine vintages:
2000 - Verset
1999 - Verset
1998 - Verset, Clape, Allemand "Reynard"
1995 - Verset
1994 - Verset, Clape
1993 - Verset
1991 - Verset
1990 - Verset
1988 - Verset

We drank the wines from young to old.

The 2000 is too young to drink yet; it smelled of earth but it also still had very primary blueberry aromas, a bit of cooked fruit, and was a tad sour.

The '99 drank well -- someone comments on licorice, another on wildness -- but the '98 was better, showing that blend of red fruits, black olives, earth, and sticks that is so attractive in Cornas syrah. The Clape and Allemand '98s were silkier and less funky, but opinion was very divided.

The '95 was the first "wow" wine for me, with real complexity on the palate, some real maturity, well-integrated acidity, and a taming of the funk. Still, the wine was criticized by some as leaving their mouths puckered with tannin.

The '93 was better than the '94 -- better acidity, longer finish -- somewhat to our surprise, but both fared badly by coming after the '95.

The '91 would have been a great thing if it hadn't been corked. (I couldn't detect it but several others called it. A bottle of 1997 Verset, brought for the event, was very obviously corked.)

The '90 was a big disappointment to me. It was too roasted and swivel-hipped to be a great wine.

The '88, however, ended the vertical on a high note: This was another "wow" wine, with a happy blend of secondary and tertiary scents.

We ended the evening with Haag 2001 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Auslese (2 577 049 06 02) which was outstanding: good zip and perfect ripeness.

Many thanks to Keith & Tamar for a wonderful evening.
 
The '85 (courtesy of Larry Stein), tasted last fall, was probably the best mature Cornas I've ever tasted.
 
What a fabulous tasting, thanks for sharing.

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Still, the wine was criticized by some as leaving their mouths puckered with tannin.
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Levenberg?

originally posted by Thor:
The '85 (courtesy of Larry Stein), tasted last fall, was probably the best mature Cornas I've ever tasted.
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Larry never opens Verset for me.
 
Robert? As in Callahan???

Your 2000 doesn't sound right. I've drunk numerous bottles of this wine over the years (the combination of its being Verset's last official vintage and Premier Cru's dumping it was very felicitous).

Wondering about your 1994, too, as that's a wine that I also have drunk many bottles of.

Shame that the 1991 was corked; it was a better vintage at Cornas than 1990. 1989 didn't suck either, but I guess you couldn't locate a bottle -- another shame.

Verset's was the prototypical Cornas. Although there are plenty of fine Cornas producers there, I can't think of anyone who could step into his shoes.

I presume these were all Kermit imports?
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Robert? As in Callahan???
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No. I know his last name. Alas, I am embarrassed to say that I cannot say the same for the fellow I drank with. ...later... Re-reading the emails I see that it was Robert Dentice. Apologies all around for the confusion.

Your 2000 doesn't sound right. Wondering about your 1994, too, as that's a wine that I also have drunk many bottles of.
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Well, I am not going to complain - yet - about a wine that shows too young.

The 94 was not great.

Shame that the 1991 was corked; it was a better vintage at Cornas than 1990. 1989 didn't suck either, but I guess you couldn't locate a bottle -- another shame.
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We were all disappointed about the 91. There was an 98 in Keith's wine cabinet but none of us could find it.

I presume these were all Kermit imports?
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Not sure. I seem to recall that one of them was hand-carried back to the US, but I could be mistaken.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I presume these were all Kermit imports?
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Not sure. I seem to recall that one of them was hand-carried back to the US, but I could be mistaken.
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This is significant. Verset had all his wines in two large foudres in his above-ground garage. There were two bottlings. Kermit took the earlier one so it wouldn't have to go through a second hot summer; the UK importer (and many others) took the latter one. My experience is that Kermit's bottlings are superior.
 
All the bottles I supplied were Kermit's. Never had an '89, the one that went AWOL was the '98 but fortunately John G. saved the day with one from his stash. I liked the 2000, '93, and '90 way more than you did and the '95 not nearly as much, guess I'm with Stephen on that one. '93 definitely gets the award for punching above expectations in my book. None were quite as awesome as the '85 I had with Claude and the Johns a few months prior, so maybe 25 years is a good rule of thumb for these. On the other hand, the consistency of flavor was remarkable. Every single vintage offered a taste of what makes them special. They got more aromatic and more friendly in texture with age but they don't seem to NEED the age to show you what they're about.
 
i recently was at a tasting of '99's that included verset cornas, clape cornas, jasmin cote rotie, st. cosme cote rotie, rostaing cote blonde cote rotie, and guigal chateau ampuis. voted blind before the wines were revealed, the verset smoked everything else in the line up (loads of gardenias and tapanade), with the rostaing bringing up the rear, although none of the wines even sucked at all.
 
I agree with the comments above about the 2000 Verset being generally much better now than the bottle described here.

And agree about how lovely the '95 is now.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
All the bottles I supplied were Kermit's. Never had an '89, the one that went AWOL was the '98 but fortunately John G. saved the day with one from his stash. I liked the 2000, '93, and '90 way more than you did and the '95 not nearly as much, guess I'm with Stephen on that one. '93 definitely gets the award for punching above expectations in my book. None were quite as awesome as the '85 I had with Claude and the Johns a few months prior, so maybe 25 years is a good rule of thumb for these. On the other hand, the consistency of flavor was remarkable. Every single vintage offered a taste of what makes them special. They got more aromatic and more friendly in texture with age but they don't seem to NEED the age to show you what they're about.
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Yes, that '93 was surprisingly good.
 
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