Solihull Fine Wine Society, December Tasting.
The usual Rowland devious and testing Xmas tasting. All blind, not even an
idea of a theme, area or hemisphere.

Welcoming wine
Grosset Polish Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2007.
Bright and viscous, pale straw, a delightful nose of butter spice and
apricot, fat entry, good fruit with balancing acidity, I thought a
viognier/chard blend.......oops. A very nice wine that needs food.


Flight of four to start

Hermitage La Chapelle Paul Jaboulet 1982
Slightly dull mature, orange rim, vegetal nose of tinned tomatoes and spice,
soft entry, spice and pepper, good balance. Finished a tad short.

HLCPJ 1983
Looks just like the 82, garnet robe, oak and spice, muted backward, firm
entry with big tannins and jammy fruit. spice and complex, layer upon
layer,, long.., .....superb. This wine will live for a long time. 4th WOTN

HLCPJ 1985
Looks like 82, a definite corkiness on the nose, crushed olives, corked on
palate yet drinkable.

HLCPJ 1987
These first four wines all looked similar in the glass, an elegant, sweet
leather pepper nose, a warm unctous entry, tobacco and fruit, perfect now.
3rd WOTN

Next flight of two

HLCPJ 1995
What depth and extract, different league to the first four, nose of morello
cherries, marshmallow, complex , hiding its charms. fat entry with fruit and
big tannins, unbalanced, but enough fruit to stand up the tannins....long
life ahead.

Hermitage Jean-Louise Chave 1995
less extract than the previous wine...a beautiful perfumed elegant nose, a
real dollop of perfume, but what?, Just all there, perfect balance, pepper
and tobacco palate, on the plateau, wonderful 2nd WOTN

last flight of two

HLCPJ 1999
Mature and bright, good legs, a real farmyard and violet nose, is this
claret? no, toothpaste and tomatoes again.. Superb mouthful of fruit, tannin
acidity all in perfect balance, shimmering white pepper. Perfect now, but
will live another 5-10 years.

Croze Hermitage PJ Domaine de Thalabert 1999
Where did this come from? Immense depth, almost portlike, black, what
orgainc overtones yet spicy cherries, wonderful fruit bomb, tannins soft
edged and gave a firmness this wine needed to balance the fruit. WOTN by a
long chalk.

A cunning tasting, oldest to youngest in order, yet the last was so
stunning, we have all gone and bought what we could after the tasting, the
Wine Society still had some left at........GBP 13, yes you saw it right
GBP13

We hav all been told that Jaboulet had gone off after the 90, and the old
mans death. But what about the 1987, dismissed by Broadbent as stewed!!

Hope your 82 was uncharacteristic as I still have some.

In fact I just went straight down to the cellar and pulled a bottle
that I'll open Friday and will report back. I was going to take an 82
Bordeaux to a blind tasting, but what the heck, we'll use them as
Guinea pigs on this wine.

Thanks for the heads up.

I also have a fair bit of the 1991, a neglected but very good vintage
in the Northern Rhone.

And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?

Sante.

we'll use them as
> Guinea pigs on this win
will be interested in the 82 showing.


And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?

Yes Bill, but this was a serious step up.

JT

On Dec 10, 10:53�am, "John T" > wrote:
> �we'll use them as> Guinea pigs on this win
>
> will be interested in the 82 showing.
>
> �And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?
>
> Yes Bill, but this was a serious step up.
>
> JT

Thanks for notes. I hope my lone bottle of '99 Thalabert shows as well
as this! I agree that it was often an overachiever , I;ve still got an
'85 ( I know that's pushing it)
Your bottle of '83 La Chapelle showed better than one we had a couple
years ago.
I tend to find Jaboulet has more bottle variation than most, even in
the flagship bottlings.

On Dec 10, 12:44�pm, DaleW > wrote:
> On Dec 10, 10:53 am, "John T" > wrote:
>
> > we'll use them as> Guinea pigs on this win
>
> > will be interested in the 82 showing.
>
> > And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?
>
> > Yes Bill, but this was a serious step up.
>
> > JT
>
> Thanks for notes. I hope my lone bottle of '99 Thalabert shows as well
> as this! I agree that it was often an overachiever , I;ve still got an
> '85 ( I know that's pushing it)
> Your bottle of '83 La Chapelle showed better than one we had a couple
> years ago.
> I tend to find Jaboulet has more bottle variation than most, even in
> the flagship bottlings.

I have a ton of La Chapelle from the late 80's through 2000 and the
vintages are textbook examples of vintage variation but I haven't
noticed a lot of bottle variation. I always bought case lots so that
might explain why.

On Dec 10, 2:11�pm, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> On Dec 10, 12:44 pm, DaleW > wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Dec 10, 10:53 am, "John T" > wrote:
>
> > > we'll use them as> Guinea pigs on this win
>
> > > will be interested in the 82 showing.
>
> > > And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?
>
> > > Yes Bill, but this was a serious step up.
>
> > > JT
>
> > Thanks for notes. I hope my lone bottle of '99 Thalabert shows as well
> > as this! I agree that it was often an overachiever , I;ve still got an
> > '85 ( I know that's pushing it)
> > Your bottle of '83 La Chapelle showed better than one we had a couple
> > years ago.
> > I tend to find Jaboulet has more bottle variation than most, even in
> > the flagship bottlings.
>
> I have a ton of La Chapelle from the late 80's through 2000 and the
> vintages are textbook examples of vintage variation but I haven't
> noticed a lot of bottle variation. �I always bought case lots so that
> might explain why.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I'd say the La Chapelle shows it less than the other wines, but I
still have run across very very different showing from different
bottles, even though both should have had good storage. That can be
true of any wine,but I seem to have run across more with Jaboulet,
even La Chapelle (actually the Thalabert seems more consistent to me).
Of course, my calling it bottle variation might be a subconscious
Jaboulet bias, as I strongly feel their larger negociant bottlings
(Les Jalets, P45) are poster children for bottle variation (or to be
more correct, batch variation, as I strongly suspect they are not
consistently the same wine).

On Dec 10, 2:51�pm, DaleW > wrote:
> On Dec 10, 2:11 pm, "Bi!!" > wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Dec 10, 12:44 pm, DaleW > wrote:
>
> > > On Dec 10, 10:53 am, "John T" > wrote:
>
> > > > we'll use them as> Guinea pigs on this win
>
> > > > will be interested in the 82 showing.
>
> > > > And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?
>
> > > > Yes Bill, but this was a serious step up.
>
> > > > JT
>
> > > Thanks for notes. I hope my lone bottle of '99 Thalabert shows as well
> > > as this! I agree that it was often an overachiever , I;ve still got an
> > > '85 ( I know that's pushing it)
> > > Your bottle of '83 La Chapelle showed better than one we had a couple
> > > years ago.
> > > I tend to find Jaboulet has more bottle variation than most, even in
> > > the flagship bottlings.
>
> > I have a ton of La Chapelle from the late 80's through 2000 and the
> > vintages are textbook examples of vintage variation but I haven't
> > noticed a lot of bottle variation. I always bought case lots so that
> > might explain why.- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> I'd say the La Chapelle shows it less than the other wines, but I
> still have run across very very different showing from different
> bottles, even though both should have had good storage. That can be
> true of any wine,but I seem to have run across more with Jaboulet,
> even La Chapelle (actually the Thalabert seems more consistent to me).
> Of course, my calling it bottle variation might be a subconscious
> Jaboulet bias, as I strongly feel their larger negociant bottlings
> (Les Jalets, P45) �are poster children for bottle variation (or to be
> more correct, batch variation, as I strongly suspect they are not
> consistently the same wine).- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I guess I assumed that in cases that the bottles are consecutive from
the bottleing line and the "batch" should be the same. I understand
that bottle variation can come from a variety of sources (storage,
corking, dirty bottles) I just haven't seen a lot of bottle variation
in the La Chapelle from the same case lots. The vintage variations
are HUGE and I often use LaChapelle to show people how different wine
can be from vintage to vintage from the same vineyard. FWIW, I often
use Penfolds to show how Aussie wines tend to taste the same from
vintage to vintage.

In article
>,
DaleW > wrote:

> On Dec 10, 2:11?pm, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> > On Dec 10, 12:44 pm, DaleW > wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Dec 10, 10:53 am, "John T" > wrote:
> >
> > > > we'll use them as> Guinea pigs on this win
> >
> > > > will be interested in the 82 showing.
> >
> > > > And Thalabert often performs above it's pay grade, haven't you found?
> >
> > > > Yes Bill, but this was a serious step up.
> >
> > > > JT
> >
> > > Thanks for notes. I hope my lone bottle of '99 Thalabert shows as well
> > > as this! I agree that it was often an overachiever , I;ve still got an
> > > '85 ( I know that's pushing it)
> > > Your bottle of '83 La Chapelle showed better than one we had a couple
> > > years ago.
> > > I tend to find Jaboulet has more bottle variation than most, even in
> > > the flagship bottlings.
> >
> > I have a ton of La Chapelle from the late 80's through 2000 and the
> > vintages are textbook examples of vintage variation but I haven't
> > noticed a lot of bottle variation. ?I always bought case lots so that
> > might explain why.- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> I'd say the La Chapelle shows it less than the other wines, but I
> still have run across very very different showing from different
> bottles, even though both should have had good storage. That can be
> true of any wine,but I seem to have run across more with Jaboulet,
> even La Chapelle (actually the Thalabert seems more consistent to me).
> Of course, my calling it bottle variation might be a subconscious
> Jaboulet bias, as I strongly feel their larger negociant bottlings
> (Les Jalets, P45) are poster children for bottle variation (or to be
> more correct, batch variation, as I strongly suspect they are not
> consistently the same wine).

Vieux Telegraphe also seems to have a lot of bottle variation for me.