2010 Guigal Crozes-Hermitage, From The Largest Appellation in the Northern Rhone

[DonRocks]

Purchased for $27.99 at Chain Bridge Cellars, $22 less than the 2003 Gruaud-Larose purchased yesterday.

The 2010 vintage in the Northern Rhone is outstanding:

"The Rock And Rhí´ne of 2010" by Jancis Robinson of jancisrobinson.com, in which she begins by saying, "Buy Rhí´ne before the Chinese do!"

Guigal is the most famous (*not* the best) producer in the Northern Rhí´ne Valley. Known more for his Côe-Rotie than his Crozes-Hermitage, you'll be spending $75 for the former, and just over 1/3 of the price for the latter while still reaping the benefits of this wonderful vintage and the producer's winemaking style - the $50 supplement is exclusively due to which vineyard the grapes came from (Côe-Rotie, btw, is notoriously difficult to work in - it's so steep that the grapes must be hand-harvested, as a tractor would most likely flip over sideways - I don't know this for a fact, but I've seen the hill, and it is treacherous).

At first, I thought it was disappointing, but that was 'bottle funk' which blew off within fifteen minutes. This appellation is required to be 85% red grapes, and 100% of those red grapes are required to be Syrah (the other 15% can be white grapes which can potentially enhance the aroma). This is statute, and must be followed to the letter (enforcement is another issue). I honestly thought I whiffed some Gamay at first, but after being open for several hours, this is a very good wine on absolute terms, and for the money, it's excellent. About 30 minutes in, I got my first whiff of black pepper (black pepper is a hallmark component in the nose of Syrah from the Northern Rhone).

I bought some kebobs from Amoo's today (two skewers of chicken, and two skewers of some of the best lamb meat I've ever eaten), and this wine - especially with the otherworldly lamb - is perfect. No rice, no bread; just chicken, lamb, and mast-o-kheyar. Try to avoid eating yogurt with red wine - it doesn't work together no matter how hard you try, but with just the chicken, and especially the extraordinary lamb, this wine was great.

Crozes-Hermitage (rhymes with (use the English words) "Grows Air Me Taj" - as in Taj Mahal, and the "H" is silent) is the largest appellation in the Northern Rhí´ne. But boy, it sure looks like Saint-Joseph is bigger on this map, doesn't it? That's because it *is* bigger, in terms of geographical boundaries, but the *acres under vine* isn't as big (make sense?)

Buy this wine and drink it now with full-bodied meats (the lamb I had tonight was textbook), or cellar it (70 degrees or less, please) for 5-10 years and beyond. Storing it in a basement (below grade) is perfectly fine; just don't stick it in a living room wine cabinet because a power outage will bite you in the ass.

Writing about wines got to be so damned boring for me (try it sometime); and that's one reason why I switched to restaurants - I had naturally gravitated to fine dining through 15 years of studying fine wine, and then I spent another 12 years going to and studying about 6,000 restaurants ("Anything worth doing is worth overdoing," I always say). Because wine writing had become so dreary, I got bored and needed to a new challenge - now *that* has become so dreary that I'm getting bored again (the DC restaurant scene has declined dramatically, and is stuffed to the gills with corruption and bullshit - it's one big circle-jerk - and no area journalist, for one reason or another, will take on any investigative journalism). It's all one, big, happy party, with checks and balances not admitted through the front door. Who knows, maybe I'm coming home in writing about wines. Or maybe I'll become a literary critic or a park ranger. Or a mathematician or a computer scientist where I can pitch in to help eradicate disease or reverse climate change. All I know is: I thank God for the members of this website because they've made the mundane fascinating - and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. You guys have kept me going when I didn't think I could continue, and it's you, not me, who have made this website something special and unique - I'm essentially just a librarian who happens to have read every book in the library.

[MarkS]

I need to stop by and pick up a bottle or two.  Generally I never buy a single bottle as if it is good I'll want it again.

[JPW]

More importantly, I can afford the Chave Crozes-Hermitage, but not the Chave Hermitage.

[DonRocks]

I need to stop by and pick up a bottle or two.  Generally I never buy a single bottle as if it is good I'll want it again.

Marks, I can find you wines of the same quality for less money. I didn't write about this because it was particularly good (though it was perfectly fine).

More importantly, I can afford the Chave Crozes-Hermitage, but not the Chave Hermitage.

Indeed - with Chave, it's Hermitage; with Guigal, it's Côe-Rotie, but it's a good parallel to make.

[DonRocks]

(the DC restaurant scene has declined dramatically, and is stuffed to the gills with corruption and bullshit - it's one big circle-jerk - and no area journalist, for one reason or another, will take on any investigative journalism). It's all one, big, happy party, with checks and balances not admitted through the front door.

 

I hope this didn't make me sound cranky.