In a recent tasting of the Syrahs of the Northern Rhones, an overriding theme stood out: these wines have significantly lower-alcohols and finer features than the Rhones from the South.
Despite its name, the wines of Cote Rotie (translation -“roasted hillside”) have uniformly low alcohols even in ripe years. This suggests, at least circumstantially, that these grapes are grown on marginally-ripening sites. This is only partially true however. The vineyards of Cote Rotie are perched on precipitous hillsides that drop 1000 feet down to the banks of Rhone River. The extreme angle of the slope is a dizzying 55%. This gives the vines tremendously long exposure to the sun… when it is not blocked out by fog that forms up from the river below. In the late spring and early fall, fog often blankets the vineyards, making full-ripening of the Syrah difficult. This is not a bad thing. In fact it gives Cote Rotie it’s regal, and fine featured character.
Very Notable: Over the course of several hours, wines that had shown very floral, and green-peppercorn, notes much-like peppery-floral tuberose, or perhaps geranium-like aromas, would suddenly switch gears, and begin to smell like bacon fat and black pepper. Then, without explanation, they would flip back again, to its earlier, peppery, floral personality.
“The source bacon fat and smoked meat aromas has always been something of a mystery”
The source of bacon fat and smoked meat aromas has always been something of a mystery. Some have suggested it is the strain of yeast, cellar funk, or maybe even a strain of brettanomyces. But this switching of profiles from green to meaty suggests, at least to me, that these are different faces of the same element: under-ripeness, or marginal ripeness of the Syrah fruit that is being harvested.
Structurally and aromatically, these Syrahs from the farthest, Northern regions of the Rhone Valley, reminded me much more of Pinot Noir from Burgundy, Nebbiolo from Barolo, or even the Aglianico grown in Campagnia and Basilicata, than Syrah, grown anywhere else in the world.
Then there was the Hermitage. Hermitage is a small, fairly homogenous appellation, of only 345 acres that covers three hills. Given Hermitage’s reputation, this was predictably much more powerful, significantly riper, and had a full-degree higher in alcohol. However, this special bottling, cannot be counted on accurately representing the Appellation, since it hails from Hermitages greatest sites (largely from the Le Meal vineyard with a small patch from Les Greffieux).
The Cornas of the flight was something of a ringer too. Mattieu Barret is a biodynamic, and almost a natural winemaker. Despite Cornas being geographically the farthest south, and warmest of all the Northern Rhone regions, Barret’s wines are much more Cote Rotie-like. I believe this to be a conscious, stylistic difference, by picking early, in order to counter the tannic clunky characteristic wines Cornas is reputed to have. I will meet him this coming week, and ask him about this issue of Syrah and ripeness in the Northern Rhone.
St Joseph and Croze Hermitage are much larger areas than Cote Rotie, Hermitage and Cornas, and much less homogenous. All of the wines from these two regions also had lower alcohols. This is due to, it is said, the cool Continental climate of the appellations. These lower alcohols are also possibly due to longstanding winemaking traditions there. In any case, there was great uniformity to the wines in the tasting, save the Sorrel Le Greal
For the tasting notes below, I have listed the stated alcohol levels, which are among the lowest from any major red wine region, that I have seen in recent years.
2010 Texier Cote-du-Rhone 12% alc. A fantastic spicy nose, with fresh grapefruit rind and cream. Meduim-light in weight, with good richness and meaty tannins. None-the-less, I do not believe this wine will age well. Texier is a producer that is part of the natural winemaking movement, meaning nothing is added to the grapes in the vineyard, nor during their production. No yeast, no SO2, no sugar, no acid, no nutrients, nothing. $21.99
2008 Bernard Burgaud, Cote Rotie 12.5% alc. Pretty nose of flowers, grapefruit, and red cherries. Medium-light, with very fine tannins, but still good breadth of flavors across the palate. Finely textured, this is a very feminine styled Cote Rotie. $37.99
2010 Domaine Faury, Saint-Joseph 13% alc. Great nose. Ripe apples, loam, smoked meat and plums. Rich and soft on the palate with meat and spice. Medium-light in weight, although it gained some weight after three hours. $26.99
2008 Domaine de Coulet, Cornas, “Bris Cailloux” 13% alc. Almost black in color. This exotic wine showed high-toned red fruits on the nose along with a wildly changing cornucopia of anise, geraniums, bacon fat (alternately), and fresh black peppercorns. Medium weight, with long, fine, acid that was much more black-fruited on the palate than the nose was. Bacon, coffee, and leather flavors, along with the green floral components of geraniums and tuberose appeared and disappeard each time I tried it. I found this to be very similar to the 2010 Bris Cailloux in weight, not to mention in it’s stunningly aromatic, elusive personality. Mathieu Barret is a master of Cornas, and this wine proves it beyond a doubt. Why was the 2008 vintage so (wrongly) overlooked? $41.99
2010 Domaine Des Grands Chamins (Delas) Croze-Hermitage 13% alc. Rich and spicy, but softer than the previous wines. With this ripeness, this also does not have the earlier wines aromatics. Plum, cocoa powder, oak… This wine is comparatively powerful, but ultimately a bit simple because of it. $29.99
2009 Saint Cosme, Cote Rotie 13% alc. Very aromatic, with a nose of grapefruit rind, earth blackberry, toasty oak, brettanomyces, and bacon. This wine was decidedly earthy compared to the others. In th mouth, blackberries and plum were more evident on the palate. This was very rich and soft, earthy, much fuller bodied, and very complex. $57.99
2009 Marc Sorrel, Hermitage Le Greal, 14% Deep and powerful in nose and flavor. Very modern in terms of the other wines tasted, with much more ripeness, thickness, and correspondingly, it had higher alcohol. Deep berry fruit, with a slight reduction. This wine was very complete, with a solid, and obvious core of fruit. Well integrated tannins. Satisfying, and even an exciting wine, if not as thought provoking, as the lighter, more aromatic, Cote Roties that they are routinely compared with. $119.99
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