Having a mental database
from which you can draw when you are blind tasting requires developing a
sense-memory of wines and the various contexts in which grapes are grown. This
includes such things as whether the wine is from an Old World (France, Italy,
Spain, German, Italy, Greece) or New World (USA, Australia, South America,
Africa) country, the climate of the region (Continental, Mediterranean, or Maritime),
the winemaking style, whether new or used oak is used, the origin of the oak
barrels (French, American, Hungarian), the amount of time they are typically
barrel-aged, as well as the weather for the particular vintage. These factors have
an enormous impact on the wine and understanding them can help you figure out such
things as whether a Sauvignon Blanc is from California, Sancerre, or New
Zealand or whether a Syrah/Shiraz is from the Northern Rhône, Australia,
California or South Africa.
Determining a vintage
of a wine (within 2 years) depends on understanding the visual and olfactory
clues the wine gives you such as the color, whether primary characteristics (fruit)
or secondary characteristics (wine making process) are dominant. A youthful
Syrah will be dark purple or even black at the core and will be violet at the
rim. The fruit, spice and earth aromas will be up front. An older Syrah may
have tints of garnet or brick red at the rim and it will display more tobacco
and leather notes on the nose. But, how the wine was stored can also play a
significant role as well as a warmer cellar will age a wine faster.
But if you really
wanted to get accurate in determining the vintage, you would also need to
memorize how the weather affected every vintage of a region. A good place to
begin might be in understanding the radical differences between the weather
patterns of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 in the Napa Valley. Then do comparative
tastings of a particular wine from each of those vintages and then determine
what characteristics of the wine were due to the effect of the weather on those
wines.
This is why it is
important to not only taste wines from all over the world and learn the typical
characteristics of those grapes, but also to taste various vintages to develop
an understanding of how wines develop in time and how the weather conditions
for a particular year are reflected in the wine. Buying a case of wine that you
like, opening a bottle every other year (taking notes of course) and comparing
them is a great to learn how wines mature.
Another way to
understand vintage wines is to participate in vertical tastings in which you
sample side-by-side the same wine from the same winery but from different
vintages. Occasionally wineries, wine shops or wine bars will offer a Vertical
Tasting of a particular wine and when they do you need to take advantage of the
opportunity.
So, with that in mind I
recently visited the Vin Vino Wine Bar
and Shop in Palo Alto to do a vertical tasting of Cornas “Renaissance” from the Northern Rhône, France
The Cornas Region
Cornas is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) in the Northern Rhône wine region of France south of Lyon. It is one of the smallest in
the Rhone Valley, just north of St. Peray and Valence, south of St. Joseph on the western slopes of the
Rhône River. This region only
produces red wine and only from the Syrah grape. Unlike other northern Rhône
red wines blending with white wine is not permitted and no white wines are
produced in this region. The name Cornas is Celtic for “burnt earth” and the earliest known written mention
of wine being made in the region go back to 885.
Cornas became an AOC in 1938 but growers did not
begin to bottle their own wine until 1950. While the Southern Rhône has a
Mediterranean climate, the Northern Rhône has a Continental. While
most of the northern Rhône appellations are influenced by the cooling le
mistral winds Cornas is mostly shielded from the and
consequently they are usually the first to harvest their grapes. The vineyards
are fairly small and are planted on steep slopes facing east south-east 100 to
400 meters above sea level. In the northern end of Cornas the soil consists of
chalk, sand, and is rocky with reddish-brown dirt.
The Winery
The Cornas “Renaissance” is produced by one of the top winegrowers in Northern
Rhône -Auguste Clape. The Clapes have been vignerons for many
generations, but the family moved to the region from Languedoc during the
1906-07 grower strikes. They then rebuilt their grape-growing venture
terrace-by-terrace, along the steep, western slopes of the Rhône River. For
many years, the majority of growers in Cornas sold their fruit to négociants
but in 1950 they began to make their own wine. Auguste was the first to bottle
his own wine and today he has been passing on the work to the next generation -
his son, Pierre-Marie, and grandson, Olivier.
Though the Clapes farm
only 8 hectares (about 20 acres) of old and older vines that are grown on steep,
rough, tightly stacked terraces where it is impossible to use any machinery. The
vineyard is planted on granite subsoil with optimal sun exposure. They own
pieces of such prime parcels as Reynard, La Côte, Les Mazards,
Pied La Vigne and recently acquired the vineyard, Les Sabarottes
which they bought from the now retired Noël Verset. Individual parcels are
vinified separately in old, oval foudres. Long élévages (progression
of wine between fermentation and bottling) of twelve to twenty-two months add
depth to the natural complexity of the wines.[1]
The Wines
Renaissance comes from Auguste
Clape’s younger vines that are 30-50 years old which are considered the Clape’s
“regular” Cornas bottling. The wine they label simply Cornas is really their
“old vines reserve.”
The 2005 Cornas “Renaissance”
This wine is clear, dark purple at
the core to violet at the rim. Although it is 8 years old it is still youthful
in appearance with no obvious visual signs of age. It is a medium+ complex
wine, on the nose it displays medium intense aromas of dusty blackberries,
black tar, and black pepper. It is somewhat vinous with additional aromas of
black ink and tar. After vigorous swirling and aeration it reveals additional
aromas of black cherries, plum skins and black licorice. The tannins are quite
high and astringent for a wine of this age, it is medium bodied with medium
alcohol and acidity with long finish. This was one of my favorites in the
line-up. This wine retails at $68 per bottle.
The 2006 Cornas “Renaissance”
This wine is similar in
appearance to the previous wine and it stains the glass when swirled. On the
nose it delivers dried black fruit aromas (prunes, dates, figs), black cherries
and subtle notes of dried herbs. On the palate it is “sweeter” but not in a sugary
way with fresher fruit. After aeration and much swirling it has additional
aromas of dark cherries, cooked caramel, and roasted nuts. It is medium bodied,
with astringent medium+ tannins that become silky on the mid-palate and it has
a medium+ length finish with notes of black pepper and plums on the return.
Although this wine is a year younger than the previous wine, it is actually
softer and more refined. This wine retails at $60 per bottle.
The 2007 Cornas “Renaissance”
This wine displays
aromas of fresh dark cherries, plums and a hint of pepper. On the palate it has
medium to medium- tannins, medium acidity and a medium length finish. It is
immediately approachable but it is not as complex as the previous wines and
feels rather thin on the mid palate leaving it the lightest of all the wines in
this vertical flight. This wine retails at $65 per bottle.
The 2008 Cornas “Renaissance”
This wine stands out from its
predecessors and successors as having more black pepper and spice upon entry
that lingers through the mid palate and finish. Once you work past the
pepper it delivers additional aromas of dark plums, black licorice, dried roses
and herbs. It has firm tannins that grip the teeth and gums, medium+ acidity
and a medium length peppery finish. It is well balanced with good structure and
was my favorite in the lineup. This wine retails at $65 per bottle.
The 2010 Cornas “Renaissance”
The newest vintage in the vertical tasting, this wine displays
low-intensity aromas of sweet plums, raisins, mild notes of black pepper, dried
herbs, black tar and just a smidgeon of burnt rubber that dissipates after
aeration. On the palate it has medium gritty tannins, it is medium bodied but
has higher acidity than the previous wines. This
wine retails at $69 per bottle.
The 2004 Cornas Clape
The final wine is from a different
vineyard that is much older. Although it is from an older vintage than the
previous wines it too is youthful in appearance, clear, dark purple at the core
to violet at the rim. On the nose it displays savory aromas of beef jerky,
teriyaki sauce, dusty plums, dried herbs, and old leather with just a hint of
black pepper. On the palate has refined silky tannins, it is medium bodied with
medium acidity and a long finish. This is the BEST of Cornas! This wine retails at $95 per bottle.
All of these wines are unmistakably
an old world Syrah as new world Syrahs, such as from the California or
Australia, tend to have more ripe fresh fruit flavors, more body with higher
alcohol and tend not to have the earthy-tar notes. While I find these wines to
be intriguing and the educational experience of tasting them was valuable, at
these prices I can think of many California Syrahs in the $35-$45 range that I’d
rather drink.
Vin Vino Wine (VVW) gives substantial pours so
unless you are spitting (I was the only one in the room doing so) drinking
these many wines would get you tanked. So you either need to limit your pours
or resist finishing the wine.
Tasting isn’t cheap, for a short flight (3 wines)
it costs $28 and for a long flight (5 wines) it will set you back $45. I also
tasted the additional 2004 Cornas Clape for $13 so the total cost of tasting these
wines was $58. But flight costs vary depending on what they are pouring and they only serve top-notch wines.
Vin Vino Wine
437 California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: 1-650-324-4903
[1] http://kermitlynch.com/our_wines/auguste-clape/
No comments:
Post a Comment