Jancis Robinson on goings-on in the northern Rhône

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I was fortunate enough to attend a tasting of Gentaz C-R from 1982-90 a few years ago. Even the so-called "off" vintages (1984 and 1987) were works of wonder.

Claude, didn't you open a bottle of '91 with me and Theresa at Perbacco? As I recall, you said that Gentaz wasn't particularly successful in the vintage and you gave us the option of opening something else. The acidity was indeed, too high in relationship to the other elements. Have you tried a bottle since then and if so, did that aspect change?

I haven't had any recent vintages of Gallet. All the ones I tried from the 90s decade were excellent.
 
Larry -- I may well have opened it there, I don't recall. I bought quite a lot of 1991 Gentaz because I knew that 1993 was his last vintage and both 1992 and 1993 were years with challenging conditions, and, frankly, there was a lot of 1991 Gentaz around in Bay Area stores at good prices (low $30). I've opened other bottles since and some have been better. People used to say about Gentaz, as a joke but there was a lot of truth in it, that each bottle was different because (1) he bottled from each barrel by hand and (2) as a result, the first few bottles had a lot more solids in them than the bottles at the end.

At least he was bottling all at one or two times, as far as I know. I visited Gallet maybe ten years ago and they were still bottling only on demand, a practice that used to be common in the Rhne but has pretty much died out. The result is the potential for tremendous bottle variation, which in fact is what I have found. I can't think of a producer that I've visited since who still follows that practice, and since 1990 or so, the only other one who comes to mind as still having followed that practice and that I visited was Farraud at Domaine du Cayron in Gigondas at a visit in 1999 -- but there, Kermit told him when to bottle all the wines for export to the US.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Isn't there a 99 Texier CR on Jim's 2010 wines of the year list? Does Eric make a Cote Rotie?
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I heard there are some '03 selling for peanuts somewhere in the US.
It is a good bottle of wine right now.
I drank all mine this summer when I discovered it was not as cooked as I thought it would be.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
I enjoy drinking Texier wines in the US... Ahem.
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Faut sortir en province Sharon!

Selling wine to Paris Bars à vins or hipster cavistes is a painful game when you don't fit well in the "vin nature" picture.
I don't and probably ever won't. Especially after my words on some blogs and forums...
Very different if you go to Lyon, Toulouse or Bordeaux...
 
originally posted by Brézème:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Isn't there a 99 Texier CR on Jim's 2010 wines of the year list? Does Eric make a Cote Rotie?
Click to expand...

I heard there are some '03 selling for peanuts somewhere in the US.
It is a good bottle of wine right now.
I drank all mine this summer when I discovered it was not as cooked as I thought it would be.
Click to expand...

Thanks! All I see now is one outlet selling the 03 on the opposite coast at $60, but I'll keep an eye out. I'm happy to have some Pergault tucked away.
 
originally posted by MarkS:
I'm guessing one could make anything 'interesting' if it was orange, but then, it loses it's tipicite, doesn't it? Becoming like another 'made' wine, where production defines the product.
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As I mentioned, 'quasi' orange. There's very little risk involved in working with airén (still the most widely planted grape variety in thw world), which tends to be flat and dull, is almost always distilled into alcohol to be made into sherry brandy, and has no typicité to speak of. But a prudent degree of maceration extracts some body and some rustic personality from it. Is it 'made'? Not in the sense of 'manipulated'. Minimal-intervention 'natural wines' are not the response for all styles - you don't make great champagne, great sherry or grest port that way. And 'making' wine is not necessarily akin to 'disfiguring' wine. Particularly when it has no face to start with and can only develop some personality through your work.
 
originally posted by MarkS:
I'm guessing one could make anything 'interesting' if it was orange, but then, it loses it's tipicite, doesn't it? Becoming like another 'made' wine, where production defines the product.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, 'quasi' orange. There's very little risk involved in working with airn (still the most widely planted grape variety in the world), which tends to be flat and dull, is almost always distilled into alcohol to be made into sherry brandy, and has no typicit to speak of. But a prudent degree of maceration extracts some body and some rustic personality from it. Is it 'made'? Not in the sense of 'manipulated'. Minimal-intervention 'natural wines' are not the response for all styles - you don't make great champagne, great sherry or grest port that way. And 'making' wine is not necessarily akin to 'disfiguring' wine. Particularly when it has no face to start with and can only develop some personality through your work.
 
Nothing wrong, nothing changed from the 1990s, with the Jamet 2000s "Norwegian bottles". They have gone up in price, but I have discovered they keep. Apart from the amazing 1999, 1998, i n particular, and 1996 are great bottles, as are indeed, "victor's" 2001.
 
Good to see you around, Knut. Long, long time no read! And in all that time, Norway has been one of the countries where I haven't been able to sell one bottle of wine!
 
originally posted by VS:
Norway has been one of the countries where I haven't been able to sell one bottle of wine!
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Strange. Wouldn't you think that the cold northern places would be the natural markets for vigorous purple wines? I sure would. Import a bit of sunshine to the cold north.

Just like bringing Mosel riesling to hot climates in the summer.

The importance of free European trade.
 
Well, we haven't attracted attention there, but we have in Sweden and Denmark... We don't have a huge marketing machinery working for us. (Come to think of it - we haven't got any machinery at all. Help, Knut!)
 
originally posted by .sasha:
so no opinions on Gallet at all ?
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Great values in the mid to late '90s. Rustic and meaty. But I bought a case or two of the '99 and ended up thinking it too bretty to drink, and, then, ended up wondering whether it was the house style, the shipping, or my change in taste. I don't think I've even seen a bottle of Gallet in the past decade. But then cote rotie in general also lost my attention in the last decade or so.

What do you think?
 
originally posted by mlawton:
But considering the tenure of some of the relationships and the changes evident, do you believe that the importers are solely selecting? Or maybe you don't want to answer that. Certainly this isn't the case at Gaillard, I have to wonder about elsewhere.
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And this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/18/AR2011011802715.html

PSA: 2004 and 2005 Juge is on offer at Crush, it's not often seen around these parts. Decent pricing on the email offer. Please buy it before those who won't understand it decide it's cool.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
originally posted by mlawton:
But considering the tenure of some of the relationships and the changes evident, do you believe that the importers are solely selecting? Or maybe you don't want to answer that. Certainly this isn't the case at Gaillard, I have to wonder about elsewhere.
Click to expand...

And this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/18/AR2011011802715.html

PSA: 2004 and 2005 Juge is on offer at Crush, it's not often seen around these parts. Decent pricing on the email offer. Please buy it before those who won't understand it decide it's cool.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. I swung by Crush today and they had a couple bottles of the 05 Juge Cornas on the racks. I hope to understand it at a later date.
 
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