After the white wines, now on to the reds of our Paris blind tasting: Read the rest of this entry »

This is gonna be a very short tasting note. In fact, this Crozes-Hermitage by acclaimed winemaker Alain Graillot , who also holds an important role in the rebirth of this AOC, clearly appears over the top. It’s a shame since the wine shows a beautiful structure and weight with lots of backbone and fine-grained tannins. But the fruit just seems too cooked and a little muted and takes away all the pleasure.
The 2003 I had a few weeks ago wasn’t too bad, but I was hoping that the 1997 would crush it. Fail! Still, I won’t be giving up on this producer. I just wasn’t very lucky!

I think the last blind tasting I took part was nearly half a year ago which is quite a shame considering the name of this blog. But last Saturday this dry spell finally ended when we gathered for an awesome blind-tasting around the varietal Syrah. An exciting topic about a noble grape that is probably at home in the Northern Rhône but is nowadays planted on every corner of the planet, and we opened not less than 15 bottles to cover all aspects of it. Next to all the usual suspects that participated in the tasting, it was also a particular pleasure to welcome fellow blogger Barry who I only recently met in person. So Here are my notes on the wines in the order of the tasting. Every 4 bottles we uncovered and compared notes. I must say there were quite some surprises, but also a few wines that matched clichés’. Read the rest of this entry »

This wine, drunk from a small bottle, was another step towards discovering wines from the Northern Rhône. I was curious how this region would show in this vintage which is known as sizzling hot in European meteorology, and also how a Crozes-Hermitage, probably the AOC with the biggest reputation for making cheaper wines in the region would perform, knowing that Alain Graillot is alledgedly one of the secret tipps there. Read the rest of this entry »