Last Week’s Tasting
Almost Chateauneuf at Lower Prices

The short version of last week’s tasting is that people liked all the wines, To wit, the most popular item purchased was the mixed case of all and mostly by people who couldn’t decide which wine they liked the best. I recommend it as a good introduction to what is good about younger, more reasonably priced Rhones.
The story becomes a little more complicated, more closely tasted. Initially people gravitated to the bright spicy Vermentino-accented tang of the 2008 Mourgues du Gres Blanc Galets Dores but the other white, the 2008 Domaine de la Solitude Cotes du Rhone Blanc, got better and better and was blooming by the end of the tasting. Some thought they had tasted wood in the wine, which I doubted. The Domaine replied to my email saying that there was indeed some wood 15% of the wine , some of the Roussanne and the Clairette portions were aged in new oak. This became my nomination for a Best Buy
The reds likewise appealed to somewhat different tastes and and different trajectories of flavors after I uncorked them an hour prior to the tasting. The
2007 Domaine Olivier Hillaire Cotes du Rhone Vieilles Vignes was the lightest and the smoothest and also the freshest. Later in the tasting some people liked what they tasted as a peppery note.
The biodynamic and organic 2007 Tribouley Cotes de Roussillon l'Alba jumped out of the gate as the favorite wine with a sumptuous black pepper and plum inflected fruit from Syrah that nicely counterpoised with a rounded acid line from Carignan and mineral from its limestone vineyard. It was extraordinarily complex for the money.
But it was overtaken toward the end of the tasting first by the rounded and rich 2007 Mas de Boislauzon Cotes du Rhone Villages, which just got deeper and fuller as the tasting went on, and lastly by the 2008 Domaine Pierre Usseglio Cotes du Rhone, which started the race slow as a tortoise but surely opened into the richest and broadest of the reds, that could be mistaken for lesser wineries’ Chateauneufs.
Reading back over what I just wrote, the tasting case seems more and more like a good idea.

White

2008 Mourgues du Gres Blanc Galets Dores, Costieres de Nimes; Robert Parker - “The elegant white .... offers notes of honeyed grapefruit and buttery citrus along with fresh acidity, medium body, plenty of flavor, and a dry, crisp finish. It should be drunk over the next year.” 13.99; Mixed Case, 12.59; Case, 11.89

2008 Domaine de la Solitude Cotes du Rhone Blanc; Aroma: lightly aromatic, very clean, nicely fragrant pretty, very clean, pretty; Mouth: clean lightly herbal, rounded, fine light pretty sweetly herbal, nice intensity, dry ; Very Good 15.99; Mixed Case, 14.39; Case, 13.59

Red

2007 Domaine Olivier Hillaire Cotes du Rhone Vieilles Vignes; Aroma: light, clean & spicy, a touch of garrigue; Mouth: firm sweet round, pretty & engaging, fleshy in the mouth, good length; Very Good 16.99; Mixed Case, 15.29; Case, 14.44

2007 Jean-Louis Tribouley l'Alba Cotes de Roussillon - Biodynamic; Color: very dark black, very dense; Aroma: reserved, very dense, spicy, black-peppery, sweet flesh, a touch of violet; Mouth: clean racy, herbal earth, light and forward, clean very firm, almost delicate with powerful flavors, opens to earthy sweet and heady ripe fruit, fine finish; Very Good Plus 26.99; Mixed Case, 24.29; Case, 22.94

2007 Mas de Boislauzon Cotes du Rhone Villages; Color: very dark; Aroma: heady spicy round Rhone peppery fat; Mouth: l;light sweet very pretty fine, rather smooth with nicely proportioned fruit, and a vivacious acid tang underneath ; Very Good Plus 18.99; Mixed Case, 17.09; Case, 16.14

2008 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Cotes du Rhone; Aroma: heady very dense very dense & rich, a touch of old saddle leather; Mouth: smooth sweet, low acid leather in the mouth, nicely layered texture soft, good length; Very Good Plus 27.99; Mixed Case, 25.19; Case, 23.79

7/6 Rhone Around the Castle Tasting Case: Two bottles each of the above wines for a special price of $206