Does Cambie suck?

I am not the expert, but within Pete's
Link from the other thread, there is this quote:

“The most important decision is when to pick,” he says. “When most of the region has finished picking, I’m just starting.” It goes on to speak of soft skins and soft tannins.

Whether you think this sucks or not depends on whether you like, say, the direction that Napa took in the '90s.
 
So, other than me, who here has actually tried the '10 Vieux Donjon? Curious about other impressions rather than just knee jerk reactions from iconoclasts. Granted, this really isn't the board to be asking about Grenach-based wines.
 
Brad, I like Grenache wines quite a lot but can't recall having had the Vieux Donjon '10.

[EDITED TO ADD] I have seen numerous VERY favorable reports on this bottling and can't recall any negative comments.

. . . . . Pete
 
he's right that the deciision about when to pick is the most important. I know there was a time when other people picked base on when I picked, because I almost always picked first.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:

Whether you think this sucks or not depends on whether you like, say, the direction that Napa took in the '90s.
Click to expand...
It's not such an easy rule. That's more or less what Ponsot (and generally de Courcel, and Confuron-Cotétidot, among others) does, and there's no overripeness in the wines, just magnificent quality. So I think there must be something else at play.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I wonder if it might not be different in warm climates, Claude.
Click to expand...
Possibly. But that, of course, suggests a level of complexity that we haven't considered.

A few other thoughts:

I recall Jean-Louis Chave telling me that he waited to harvest his 1997 Hermitage (and wound up picking after everyone else had stopped that year) because the added time on the vine concentrated the acidity in that low acid year.

Age of vines is going to make a difference, and certainly treatment in the vineyards, too.

Daniel Ravier has told me that one of the differences between contemporary Domaine Tempier and the vintages under the Peyraud is that now each parcel is picked at "optimal" maturity, which means that the harvest can be very extended, whereas under the Peyraud, once they harvest began, they just went straight through to the end. One of the results of this new regime, he concedes, is the higher alcohols.
 
" . . . Added time on the vine concentrated the acidity . . ."

It may take awhile for me to get my head around that concept.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
" . . . Added time on the vine concentrated the acidity . . ."

It may take awhile for me to get my head around that concept.
Best, Jim
Click to expand...

The grapes lost water, concentrating the acidity.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I wonder if it might not be different in warm climates, Claude.
Click to expand...

Considering the difference in results between Ponsot and Rémy on the one hand, and Clos de Tart on the other (all consistently late pickers), I'm inclined to think it's something else -- maybe a question of vineyard management or vegetal material.
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
this really isn't the board to be asking about Grenach-based wines.
Click to expand...

I was also wonderin, wherefore could this be? Perhaps it was before my time, but did the bored just decide, one bright morning, "hey, wouldn't it be fun to discriminate, just for the heck of it, against one of the viniferas, hahaha?" Is the choice of variety to be bullied the work of spurious and random iconoclasts or, since it is a grape that notoriously thrives in hot climates, a coded way to discriminate against the very right to exist of hot climate wines? Just wonderin.
 
No, I would look to Mary Douglas for an explanation here -- something about the grape that can achieve spoofulation completely naturally puts those with ideologically pure tastes in a quandary.
 
I like mourvedre a lot, so my own distaste for grenache isn't climate-based. I just don't like the flavors of the grape. Parkerization in the region probably isn't helping matters but I don't ordinarily enjoy the non-Parkerized ones, either.
 
I'm indifferent to most Grenache, dislike most of the riper and heavier examples... and yet I'm hooked on Rayas, and any of the Grenache-heavy blends that Steve Edmunds makes. If more Grenache based wines tasted like a Fonsalette CDR, or Rocks and Gravel, I'd drink it much more often.

Just what is Steve's magic recipe with the grape? (Now I'm suddenly craving a bottle of '01 R&G...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top