Red Wings and 
Red Rhônes ’00-01
~
Côtes du Rhône-down
Part 1

 

It’s not all Gigondas and Croze Hermitage when we open a red Rhone for a Red Wings game here at Gang Central. More often, it’s a good Côtes du Rhône, and this season we’ve tried a number of them, and one QPR value rocks steady as our current Wine Probation ® red.

1998 Paul Jaboulet Aine  Parallele "45" Côtes du Rhône, $6.99, 13% alc.: We used to go through a lot of this during the first half of the decade, but the quality seemed to drop off somewhere around the ’95 vintage. I recently picked up the current model because of the price, and was pleasantly surprised. Dark garnet, this Syrah based red features plum/prune/ chocolate/berry/cherry/earth aromas that echo in the flavors, where the earth component dominates now, especially on the finish. Not too acidic, this does have a few years worth of tannins to resolve, and these wines have a good track record for aging. This is obviously the product of a superior vintage, and it’s getting harder all the time to find a quality $7 red, so this is one of those proverbial no-brainers.

1998 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône, 50% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre, 25% Syrah, $11.99, 13% alc.: We tasted this side by side with the Paralelle "45" and it edged out the Jaboulet selection, but then it goes for anywhere from $2-5 more per bottle. It’s another one that we haven’t been that impressed with in the last few vintages, but this also recalls the quality of the first half of the decade. A deep dark garnet in color, it exudes a fragrant, almost floral bouquet of strawberry/plum/chocolate, with the emphasis on the chocolate and some earthy nuances in the background. These echo nicely in the smooth, fairly rich, round flavors, with some tannins and enough acidity to age well for at least a few years. It finishes with more of the earthiness noted, and is excellent with flank steak rubbed with a secret concoction known only to Canadian Zinfan. A big surprise here, and a most pleasant one.

1998 Louis Bernard Côtes du Rhône, $9.99, 13% alc.: This dark garnet is almost "squidy," and the flavors and aromas are just as deep, dark and dense. The nose is fairly stingy at first, giving only grudging earthy plum/black currant, but it opens a little with extended air to gain a note of nice blackberry and a hint of Ethiopian coffee. These follow through on the palate with good acidity, but stemmy tannins clamp down on the fruit and finish, even after two hours in a decanter. Still, it does open some, and there’s a solid core of fruit here, but it really needs at least two or three years to mellow, if not longer. This also edged out the Paralelle "45" in a side by side, showing deeper, purer fruit, though again, at a higher tariff.

Same Label - Two Different Wines

1996 Domaine du Vieux Chene  Côtes du Rhône Cuvee de la Haie aux Grives, $9.99, 13.5% alc.: I pulled one of these out of the cellar from hell a while back to see how it was coming along. I bought several of them two years ago for their obvious QPR, knowing that they really needed some bottle age to show their best. I had tasted a ’94 a while back, and it was a beauty, so it was time to evaluate the progress of this one. There seems to be a good deal of Syrah in this ruby dark garnet, considering the pretty plum/violet bouquet with shades of game and pepper lurking in the background. The flavors echo, and are really starting to come around, though there are still some tannins and zesty acidity to mellow a bit. Enjoyable now, this will only get better with further cellaring.

A few days later, I was browsing in the Merchant’s Fine Wine Warehouse in Royal Oak, Michigan, and viola, what do I find but another stash of the same wine, or so I thought. I dropped one into a mixed case, brought it home and opened it that night. Guess what? It’s not the same wine. It has essentially the same ruby dark garnet color, but it’s more fruit driven than the previous sample, and for the record, the earlier model was consistent with other bottles pulled from our cache last year and before. This one is obviously a Grenache based wine, with a pretty raspberry/ strawberry/cherry nose with some subtle earth/garrigue/leather adding nice complexity. The flavors generally echo, with somewhat stemmy overtones, good acidity and another two years or so worth of tannins to resolve. This too shows good QPR, but did the label get slapped on the wrong bottle or what? Perhaps this was actually the Cuvee des Capucines. Curiouser and curiouser...

1999 Domaine du Vieux Chene Côtes du Rhône Cuvee des Capucines, $9.99, 14% alc.: This pretty ruby dark garnet just showed up in Day-twah a few weeks ago. It exudes a black cherry/ raspberry bouquet that follows through in the flavors, gaining more and more cherry cough drop character as it opens, with little hints of underbrush in the background. There’s good acidity, and the obvious tannins can’t hide the bright fruit, though they do clamp down on the finish some. Pleasant and enjoyable, this is somewhat one-dimensional at this point, but these have a good track record for cellaring, so it’s likely to improve in a few years.

1998 Domaine Sainte-Anne Côtes du Rhône Villages, $9.99, 13% alc.: This dark garnet features a creamy strawberry/raspberry/cherry nose with undertones of vanilla and hints of confectioner’s sugar, indicating that there’s a good dose of oak over Grenache here. The flavors echo more or less, and it’s creamy smooth on the palate, yet there are some significant tannins that clamp down on the finish. It shows zippy acidity and a little heat, but all in all, it should be an enjoyable CdR with a few years in the cellar, especially for the price. The oak may be a turnoff to some.

1998 Perrin Reserve Côtes du Rhône, $8.99, 60% Grenache, 20 % Syrah, 10 % Mourvedre, 10 % Cinsault, 13 % alc.: Same dark garnet color here, with chocolate/ earth/plum/red currant on the nose. The flavors echo with more earth, and it’s not too tannic or acidic. It finishes with yet more earth, leaving an overall impression of a solid, if unexceptional CdR.

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On to Part 2

The original music on this page is from the 
Virtual Jazz Album
.



By Bastardo


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1998 Paul Jaboulet Aine  Paralelle "45" Côtes du Rhône

1998 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône

1998 Louis Bernard Côtes du Rhône

1996 Domaine du Vieux Chene  Côtes du Rhône Cuvee de la Haie aux Grives

1999 Domaine du Vieux Chene Côtes du Rhône Cuvee des Capucines

1998 Domaine Sainte-Anne Côtes du Rhône Villages

1998 Perrin Reserve Côtes du Rhône

Part Two

1998 Domaine de l’Enclos Côtes du Rhône, 1999 Domaine Andre Brunel Côtes du Rhône Cuvee Sommelongue

1997 Jean-Luc Colombo Côtes du Rhône Les Abeilles

1998 Jean-Luc Colombo Côtes du Rhône Les Abeilles

1993 Domaine Des Girasols Côtes du Rhône Vieilles Vignes

1998 Chateau Mont-Redon Côtes du Rhône

1998 Domaine de la Solitude Côtes du Rhône

 

 

       

 

Underground Index

Wine Probation © Defined 

The Drawing of the Threes

  A Chat with J.C. Mathes of J et R Selections

More Red Wings 
& Red Rhones '02-'03

Red Wings & Red Rhones '02-'03

  More Lucky Languedocs

  10 New Italian Reds

  Playoff Diary '02
Welcome Home Stanley!!!

  Playoff Diary '02
Round 3

  Playoff Diary '02
Round 2

Seven Lucky Languedocs

Playoff Diary '02
Round 1

Côtes du Rhône-down 4/02

  Red Wings & Red Rhones 2002

Red Wings & Red Rhones 01-02

  A Dandy Rhône and a Night at the Joe