Northern Rhones at Riverpark (Verset, Benetiere, Gachon,...)

[salilb]

Dinner with Ramon Cabrera, Zachary Ross and Michael Lewis at Riverpark last night, with a stellar lineup of traditional Northern Rhone Syrah. We tried to obey the rule of fifteen where possible, but the younger wines also showed outstandingly for the most part. Incredibly fun evening, thanks guys.

2001 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre
An immediate wow with a beautiful scent of fresh minty greenness, stony minerality and developing creaminess around pure lemon fruit. There's amazing depth and balance here, lots of complexity that keeps unravelling with air and amazing length. One of the best white Burgs I've had.

2005 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos
Suffers in comparison with the Raveneau, coming across as much more primary with fresh tart citrus and pear fruit over a base of oyster shells and stones. There's excellent balance here with bright acidity keeping it very precise and light, but it's still quite undeveloped and gives the impression of holding a lot in reserve. This could be fantastic with time if it doesn't premox.

1999 Noël Verset Cornas
From magnum, and a treat to be able to follow this over a few hours. Initially it's very clean and primary, showing fresh black olives lightly accented by savoury smoky and earthy notes. With air it unravels more and more nuances as meaty and floral elements emerge, along with that wild Verset funk. There's incredible depth, balance and it's a really outstanding wine delivering pretty much everything I'd expect in a young Cornas.

1996 Noël Verset Cornas
Incredible aromatics; this is just wonderful to smell with bloody, gamey and funky leathery scents, fresh green olives and a noticeable iodine/VA element that only adds to the complexity and sense of wildness. It doesn't have quite the same depth or development on the palate just yet, tasting quite youthful with a lot of acidity though it never feels out of balance. I'm looking forward to seeing how my other bottles develop.

1995 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard
Heat damaged. A shame.

1998 Domaine de Gachon St. Joseph
Pretty much everything I look for in traditional Northern Rhone Syrah; a seamless combination of youthful red fruits and olives with sauvage meaty, smoky and forestal elements and a bright floral note that emerges with more air. This manages to convey a sense of rusticity and polish at the same time, superbly balanced and compelling to drink with more nuances and layers unravelling with each sip. Fantastic.

1991 Domaine de Gachon St. Joseph
Corked.

1989 Domaine de Gachon St. Joseph
Shows its age with mature forestal and leathery notes dominating and a dusty, dried character to the red fruited flavours. It's very savoury and light on its feet, though there's still a surprising amount of tannin lurking on the back end.

2005 Benetiere Côte-Rôtie Cordeloux
Incredibly fresh and youthful, a mouthful of just-picked raspberries seasoned with fragrant floral notes and a vivid pepperiness. It's all about primary flavour right now, but already so easy to drink with a sense of incredible lightness and polish to the flavours.

1996 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie
Drinking beautifully now (remembering BJ's rule of 15) with the fruit still bright and fresh, and augmented by maturing savoury earthy, saline and bacon notes; really finessed and polished in the mouth with the tannins rather gentle but a bright acid spine keeping it very fresh and lively.

2004 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese #12
Youthful ripe Mosel fruit, florality, slate and gentle honeyed accents conveyed with a sense of real clarity and a lightness of touch; an Auslese that's more about purity and freshness than being a big dessert wine. Schaefer never disappoints.

[salilb]

A few shots from the evening...

[Ramon_NYC]

Good notes, Salil. I concur with them.

The wines were ALL so good and displayed the nuances, the differences and the applicable regional similarities. If I was scoring with numbers, other than the 2 not-so-perfect bottles, every bottle that we drank would have merited a score of 92 and above.

Thanks to Salil for getting the offline rolling and for doing the photo shoot. It was a pleasure to meet-up with Michael for the first time and, as always, it was nice to catch-up with Zach, and my thanks to all for the terrific wines and the wonderful company. The wonderful service, the good food and the relaxing ambiance at Riverpark, I thought, is worth mentioning. The Cheese Empanadas and Meat appetizer platters, as well the Spaghetti 2nd Course were my foodie highlights.

Chablis Flight:
2001 Dom. Francois Raveneau Chablis “Montee de Tonnerre” 1er Cru
2005 Dom. Vincent Dauvissat (Rene & Vincent) Chablis “Les Clos” Grand Cru

The 2001 Raveneau MdT was another example of a wine that’s almost expected from a fine producer. Mellow with some age, but tight with well-delineated flavors, and an excellent mouth-sensation that just keeps on going and going. The 2005 Dauvissat Les Clos was still young and as good as I already found it to be, it had the positive components that suggest that it will someday be very, very good with a few more years in the cellar.


Cornas Flight:
1999 Noel Verset Cornas (in a magnum)
1996 Noel Verset Cornas
1995 Thierry Allemand “Le Reynard” Cornas (heat damaged as per my more knowledgeable companions)

The ‘99 Verset was different from the ’96 Verset when freshly opened, where I found the finesse of the much rounder and more feminine ’99 easier on the mouth-feel than the wild and somewhat younger-tasting ‘96 . Then with time, both started to show very similar components and style, as both were animalistic Cornas with all the complexities of a very fine traditional Northern Rhone syrah. Both were excellent examples of fine products in different years by a great craftsman. A shame about the ’95 Allemand, as I had expected that it would have provided for a great match-up to the Verset wines.


Saint-Joseph Flight:
1998 Dom. de Gachon Saint-Joseph
1991 Dom. De Gachon Saint-Joseph (corked)
1989 Dom. De Gachon Saint-Joseph (replacement/back-up bottle)

The ’98 Gachon was Saint-Joseph was a pleasant revelation to me. As I noted during our dinner, if this were served blind to me, I would have pegged it as a good traditional Cornas, rather the relatively smoother Saint-Joseph that I’m more accustomed to. This was a very good find by Zach. I also agree about the surprising amount of tannin on the ’89, which by the way, was also consistent in style as the ’98.


Cote-Rotie Flight:
2005 Marie et Pierre Benetiere Cote-Rotie “Cordeloux”
1996 Dom. Jean-Luc et Jean-Paul Jamet Cote-Rotie

The 2005 Benetiere Cordeloux was obviously very young but appears to have all the stuffing that’s important to make this a necessary bottle to revisit after 10-15 years. It is big and ripe, but still showed all the components of a well-defined structure and balance. I’ll be seeking out more bottles by this producer from now on. On the other hand, the ’96 Jamet was, well, the ’96 Jamet. Class and elegance and a nice counter to the Cornas and the SJ. I can’t help but compare it to Verset’s 96, with the Verset being a wild and unpredictably-alluring Cameron Diaz, while the Jamet would be more like a gentle Gwynneth Paltrow.


Sticky:
2004 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Auslese #12
Light and gentle. A good refreshing balance of mineral and white fruit. The type that I would prefer after drinking immediately after a ton of traditional and some burly syrah from the Northern Rhone. This wine delivered.