Received word 3 days earlier that Ian was in town, after recently relocating back to London, and we quickly arranged a dinner with a few Northern Rhone reds at Riverpark in NYC. Had a great time catching up over good wines, foods and continued on with some beers at a couple of nearby watering holes.
2008 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Genevrieres Meursault 1er Cru
(need to verify if I had the correct vintage)
Toasty nose, lemon acidity, and quite rich. Ripe fruit and a little bit of spice. A refreshing starter in the midst of a 4-day New York heat wave. Also drank nicely with Riverpark’s oyster tacos. B+
1998 Domaine J-P & J-L Jamet Cote Rotie
Appealing bouquet of flowers, bacon, confection and roasted herb. In top drinking form, with layers of ripe red fruit and mineral notes. Soft, smooth and elegant. A-
1995 Noel Verset Cornas
Meat, earth and old forest wood on the expressive nose. A classic Cornas structure. Mineral and fresh herb abounds. Lean black fruit. Appears to be at the very early stage of a fine and very long drinking phase. A-
1996 Noel Verset Cornas
Austere. Bigger than the 1995, but not as rounded and not nearly as approachable. Seems to be darker in color, too. Peppery specks. OK, so this is what I envision as the classic backward Cornas … and I like it. Give it time, quite a bit of it. B+
I was a bit worried that we didn’t have enough to drink, what with the proprietor and his staff sniffing around – the idea was to throw them a few tit-bits to get the corkage waived – and the searing, oppressive – hence thirst-inducing - July NYC heat. It was nice to get rained on and summarily drenched when we came out of our second or third bar. It was a fitting end to an evening with Ramon, whose perspicacity is matched by his capacity…to keep going, like one of the mountain climbers in the Tour de France.
PYCM is one of the hottest producers in the Chassagne-Montrachet. With everyone called ‘Colin’ or ‘Morey’ it makes you wonder why you don’t see more club- or web-footed hunchbacks walking around the village because after all they all marry their brothers and sisters. The reason is that they all have kids via their mistresses. I think Pierre Yves is the son of Marc Colin. But I may be wrong. About that.
Pierre Yves Colin Morey Meursault Genevrieres 2008 – pale colour, ripe, rich and delicious, mineral notes with perfectly judged acidity, which gives it a certain fleetness of foot.
Jamet Cote Rotie 1998 – funky, animaly, gamey, feral, carnal, rustic, forest floor, minerally, smoke, hickory, grilled meats, cured meats herbs and camphor. Drinking this I was like a pig in shit.
Noel Verset Cornas 1995 – a journey back in to the pre-industrial past. It has a cacophony of farmyard smells, notably lashings of farmyard manure; cowhide, grilled meat, smoke, bonfire and mineral elements, with herbal notes developing over time and a hint of garrigue. One for the Village Green Preservation Society. Better than taking an ice cold shower.
Noel Verset Cornas 1996 – this was a different animal, more tannic and foursquare than the 1995, somewhat grouchy to begin with; dusty, minerally and metallic, metal ores, feldspar and wolframite…Tungsten Carbide…ooohhh….(sorry)… leathery peppery, blood, game, iodine and camphor. Really improves in the glass and benefits from decanting. Beats sitting on a mountain top half-naked thrashing yourself with a birch.
Much as I love old Jasmin and Rostaing, when it comes to Cote Rotie Jamet is hard to beat. He has taken over where Dervieux-Gentaz left off (we don’t include Guigal and his La-Las in this list because they are much too vulgar). Jamet Cote Rotie has everything you could ask for…we had the 1997 down in the rhone and it was similar to the '98 but with a bit more tension. The 1998 is a fantastic wine, but if I could level one criticism it would be that it is remarkably ready to drink and easy to understand; it lacks a bit of mystery and tension – or ‘nervosity’, which the Versets have in spades. For that reason the two Versets are even more thrilling wines, particularly given once we drink our dwindling supplies we will probably never see them again. They are the absolute antithesis of modern commoditized 21st century wines.
