2001 Dom. Alary Cotes du Rhone Villages Cairanne Font d'Estevanas - made from a
choice site in Cairanne (Rabasse Charavin also makes a similar wine from this
area, but with a different blend), from 60% Syrah and a mix of Grenache (some
over 100 years old) and Counoise for the remaining 40%. This is actually quite
unusual for the area, where a typical encepagement would reverse the blend, or
more likely have the Syrah component at no more than 20-30%.

The regular Cotes du Rhone is an early drinking wine made from about 85%
Grenache, but the Font d'Estevanas is a more serious effort using Syrah clones
obtained from Hermitage. The Alarys also make a reserve bottling from the Font
d'Estevanas property that is made from Grenache, called "La Jean de Verde" - I
haven't tasted that wine, but based on several vintages of Font d'Estevanas I
have tried, I would be quite interested in making its acquaintance.

The 2001 is just now being released in our market at $27.50 (US about $20 and
probably available for less if you look around. I opened a bottle a couple of
hours ahead of tasting it and 'tossed' it into a carafe to get some air. Then I
tried it before dinner, with dinner and after dinner, alone and with cheese,
for a total of about 3 hours tasting. The wine is fairly dark with purple
edges. The nose was overwhelmingly that of warm sweet jam, with both blackberry
and cassis elements. This was at variance with previous vintages, in which I
had noted some pepper and a plummier style of fruit, but never quite the level
of blackberries that I observed here.

The initial impression in the mouth was one of mild surprise that it wasn't
even bigger, as the nose was consistent with the huge Australian wines I'd been
tasting the night before. Once I readjusted my expectations, I found it to be
quite well balanced, not too sweet and with only soft tannins.

An hour later, I retasted with food and the wine surprised me by showing much
more tannin than I'd noticed on first tasting it, and it had become a little
sweeter in the mouth. By the time I tasted it for the last time, these tannins
had smoothed out a bit. There was also a little tar in the nose by now, but
that was a characteristic I had observed much earlier with previous vintages -
perhaps it was just swamped by all the blackberry.

The wine is a very good Cotes du Rhone - however it is pressing the edge of
credibility with the price in our market. If it were $5 less, it would be a buy
by the case sort of wine, but it pushes into regions where there are quite a
few other interesting wines to choose from, and that will undoubtedly hurt
sales. Nevertheless a very nice wine performing at well above the customary
Cotes du Rhone Villages level.

Bill Spohn wrote:

> The wine is a very good Cotes du Rhone - however it is pressing the edge of
> credibility with the price in our market. If it were $5 less, it would be a buy
> by the case sort of wine, but it pushes into regions where there are quite a
> few other interesting wines to choose from, and that will undoubtedly hurt
> sales. Nevertheless a very nice wine performing at well above the customary
> Cotes du Rhone Villages level.
>

Thanks for the excellent notes, Bill. I too am a big fan of the 2000 Font
D'Estevenas, but haven't yet tried the 2001. FWIW, we can still find it for
under $20 in our area, though the price is creeping upwards...

Mark Lipton

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 19:28:53 GMT, Mark Lipton > said:

]
]
] Bill Spohn wrote:
]
] > The wine is a very good Cotes du Rhone - however it is pressing the edge of
] > credibility with the price in our market. If it were $5 less, it would be a buy
] > by the case sort of wine, but it pushes into regions where there are quite a
] > few other interesting wines to choose from, and that will undoubtedly hurt
] > sales. Nevertheless a very nice wine performing at well above the customary
] > Cotes du Rhone Villages level.
] >
]
] Thanks for the excellent notes, Bill. I too am a big fan of the 2000 Font
] D'Estevenas, but haven't yet tried the 2001. FWIW, we can still find it for
] under $20 in our area, though the price is creeping upwards...
]
] Mark Lipton
]
]

Honestly I prefer the Rabasse-Charavin (Coutourier), although I agree the Alary
is pretty good stuff. As Bill points out the former is higher % grenache. For both wines
the age of the vines really shows in the glass. (I have also been less enthusiastic
about some of the Alary wines, although I know they're a favorite in this forum...)

Like Mark I haven't had the '01 yet either; thanks for the great notes. But, the
vintage differences imply that the '00 should be the much better wine. Did
you try that one, Bill?

The prices make me sigh, but then, most Rhone prices do that these days...
$27 CAN is about $20 US, though, no?

-E

--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
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>But, the
>vintage differences imply that the '00 should be the much better wine. Did
>you try that one, Bill?
>

The 2001 is at least as good as the 2000, IMO.

>The prices make me sigh, but then, most Rhone prices do that these days...
>$27 CAN is about $20 US, though, no?

Correct.