Tonight's dinner started off with some Morbier cheese that I'd bought a
while ago, served on crackers. Jean decided
that an aperitif was called for, so she opened a bottle of Jurançon
that a French student of hers had given her some time ago:

2002 P. Bordenave Jurançon "Harmonie"
color: dark golden-yellow
nose: citrus and honey
palate: sweet entry, good acidity, grapefruit, honey, clean finish

We weren't sure how sweet this Jurançon would turn out to be, so we'd
been putting off opening it with food. However, the Morbier (au lait
cru du haut-Libradois) turned out to be an inspired match with the wine:
with the cheese, the wine seemed crisper, its flavors more defined and
the sugar was less noticeable.

With a simple dinner of roast chicken, orzo and chard sauteed with
garlic, Jean served me a wine blind:

color: dark purple with bricking at the edges
nose: vegetal, a hint of mushrooms and very little fruit, alcohol
palate: thin, acidic, vegetal with a noticeable lack of fruit

Jean and I were both a bit put off by this first impression. She
suggested that maybe decanting would help, so we splashed some into a
decanter. Indeed, there was less vegetal character to it and more fruit
in evidence after the decantation. When asked to guess what it was, I
feebly offered up a guess of a 10-year old CalCab (though the high
acidity certainly had me second-guessing that choice). In the back of
my mind, I was thinking "I did have to open my big mouth about having
had so few heat-damaged wines -- this one probably got cooked
somewhere." When Jean told me that it was 7 years old and from France,
I revised my guess to a Cotes du Rhone with substantial Syrah content.
With this, I got closer and she revealed the wine:

2000 A. Belle Crozes-Hermitage "Les Pierrelles"
nose: by now, a bit spicy, with plummy black fruit
palate: medium body, good acidity, briery, black fruit

Very odd beginning with all the vegetal notes, but they did eventually
blow off to reveal a nice wine. Certainly not profound, but a very
decent Syrah from the N. Rhone. Now, 3 hours later, the wine is still
very much alive.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

"Mark Lipton" > skrev i meddelandet
...

> 2000 A. Belle Crozes-Hermitage "Les Pierrelles"
> nose: by now, a bit spicy, with plummy black fruit
> palate: medium body, good acidity, briery, black fruit
>
> Very odd beginning with all the vegetal notes, but they did eventually
> blow off to reveal a nice wine. Certainly not profound, but a very
> decent Syrah from the N. Rhone. Now, 3 hours later, the wine is still
> very much alive.

2000 in Croze-Hermitage was, according to some sages, the year of the
winemakers - certain wines being unbalanced, and strong in alcohol. Perhaps,
the beginning of a downhill slope (2001, 2002, 2003 ...) which did not turn
until 2004, though the good producers made decent wines.

Cheers

Nils

--
Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se

On Sep 22, 5:02�am, "Nils Gustaf Lindgren"
> wrote:
> "Mark Lipton" > skrev i ...
>
> > 2000 A. Belle Crozes-Hermitage "Les Pierrelles"
> > nose: by now, a bit spicy, with plummy black fruit
> > palate: medium body, good acidity, briery, black fruit
>
> > Very odd beginning with all the vegetal notes, but they did eventually
> > blow off to reveal a nice wine. *Certainly not profound, but a very
> > decent Syrah from the N. Rhone. *Now, 3 hours later, the wine is still
> > very much alive.
>
> 2000 in Croze-Hermitage was, according to some sages, the year of the
> winemakers - certain wines being unbalanced, and strong in alcohol. Perhaps,
> the beginning of a downhill slope (2001, 2002, 2003 ...) which did not turn
> until 2004, though the good producers made decent wines.
>
> Cheers
>
> Nils
>
> --
> Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se

Is that your feeling too? I'm no fan of 2002 and 2003 Rhones (though
had some good '02 Northern Rhones), but mostly thought '01 was pretty
good. Only Crozes I own from period are '00 & '01 Graillots, though.
Not a lot of data points on my end.