'97 Graillot Hermitage

S

SFJoe

Joe Dougherty
My bottle of this tonight is past its prime, but not gone. The nature of the price tag makes me think that it might possibly be one of my last purchases from The Oven on the North End of the Village, and it makes me wonder--has anyone had a good bottle recently? I could be too harsh.

It's not bad, but it's a little soft and structureless, not amazingly aromatic, and my inventory management could probably be improved.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
'97 Graillot HermitageMy bottle of this tonight is past its prime, but not gone. The nature of the price tag makes me think that it might possibly be one of my last purchases from The Oven on the North End of the Village, and it makes me wonder--has anyone had a good bottle recently? I could be too harsh.

It's not bad, but it's a little soft and structureless, not amazingly aromatic, and my inventory management could probably be improved.
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There were a lot of ripe wines in that year IMHO. Tasted better young
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Lou Kessler:

There were a lot of ripe wines in that year IMHO. Tasted better young
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Chave is still pretty tasty at most recent opportunity.
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That doesn't surprise me, he always seems to attain a modicum of balance. I didn't mean to criticize all 07 wines. Piedmont Italy sseems to be a place of ripe 07 wines but not all.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Lou Kessler:

There were a lot of ripe wines in that year IMHO. Tasted better young
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Chave is still pretty tasty at most recent opportunity.
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A real issue in 1997 is whether the cellars were sufficiently cool for the hot grapes that came in. Chave as well as the big negociants had that capability (Jaboulet was very successful in 1997). A lot of the small producers did not. My impression of Graillot's facility is that even though it is above ground, he probably does have (maybe as a result of being above ground) air conditioning, and so did not crash and burn like so many others in 1997. Still, almost 13 years for Crozes in a vintage such as 1997 is really pushing it. Graillot does not have great terroir, to say the least, but I'm unsure how that played out in 1997 (sometimes, flat land like Graillot has does better in drought years such as 1997).
 
NYT on Graillot (1999).

"He also owns two small portions of a vineyard called Les Greffieux, in Hermitage itself..."

"A modest man, Mr. Graillot persists in downplaying his Hermitage: it is not, he insisted, up to the quality he wants to display one day, even though many of his vines are 80 years old."
 
I believe Alain gets about two barrels every year from his tiny, 0.2 ha parcel of Les Greffieux.
 
originally posted by VS:
I believe Alain gets about two barrels every year from his tiny, 0.2 ha parcel of Les Greffieux.
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He had (still has?) a buying or metayage agreement but has never owned any Hermitage, or so it's been said. Didn't his son buy a little bit of Cornas recently?
 
never liked his wines. let's forget, for a moment, about the specific bottle in question. what do the gathered like about alain's wines? they seem well made, but boring.
 
From Livingston-Learmonth's book:

"Changes to his rental agreement at Hermitage mean that Alain Graillot produced no Hermitage under his own name from 2000 to 2003. 'I have been waiting for the vineyard, planted in 1993, to become a little older,' he says, having sold the wine in the interim to a northern Rhone negociant.

"Previously he rented a tiny 0.12 ha site on Les Greffieux as well as working his own 0.12 ha plot there. The red 1989 was his first wine.

"The wine was revived in 2003, and in 2004 there was enough for three casks--around 1,200 bottles. It is raised for 15 months in one-year-old oak."
 
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