Bernard 98 CDP, ESJ 01 Bassetti Syrah

[FrankD]

We had a dinner with lamb (butterflied leg, marinated and grilled) and Mediterranean dishes, a nod to Greek Easter.

I brought up 2 bottles -- a Louis Bernard CDP from 1998 was the first. This was a frustrating wine. I know it's not a pretentious CDP, it's bargain basement stuff in a way. But I could taste some really nice stuff, except it was through a glass, darkly. It took a few minutes before I realized that it was corked. It was so good, despite that, that about half of the people present continued to drink it. I went and got a dump bucket and dumped the glasses at my end of the table.

This gave me the opportunity to open the 2001 Edmunds-St-John Syrah from the Bassetti vineyard.

I have to say -- I have had some very good Northern Rhônes from very good years, Jamet, La Chappelle, etc. Côte Rôtie, Hermitage. That is what dawned on me when I tasted this wine. It is fruity, you have to use the word "delicious" -- but it's also very strongly reminiscent of French Syrah wines, the very best French Syrahs.

I would be quite interested to know what Harry thinks of Steve Edmunds' Syrahs. It was an event in my wine-tasting life to drink this wine, and I will confess that before posting here I bought the last 4 bottles I could find (from a shop on Long Island).

For those of you younger than me, the 2005 is supposed to be even better...

Frank

[HarryKaris]

Louis Bernard (negociant) made (and still does) very weird wines, many times not dignified bearing CdP's name......

CdP-Harry

[FrankD]

And I suppose one is mainly dealing with Grenache in the CDP area.

F