LaLa Night in San Francisco

A group of six members of the Lamorinda Old World Wine Geeks (LOWWG, or should this be LOWWBG for “Boring Geeks”?), with Board members David Sankaran and Lou Rittenhouse and spouses, convened at Myth Restaurant in San Francisco for a tasting of northern Rhone wines. Myth is a hot new destination in the Embarcadero district, reasonably priced, but delivering food and service that competes favorably with the top restaurants in the city. And the wine service, overseen by Wine Director Alex Fox, was impeccable, with ample space for food and stemware at the oversized table.

We began with two white wines served in sequence against a variety of dishes, then proceeded to two small flights of reds, the first consisting of the 1989 Chave Hermitage and Jaboulet la Chapelle, the second with the 1988 Guigal la Mouline paired with the 1994 Guigal la Turque. All of the red Rhones showed beautifully.

2004 Fevre Chablis Fourchaume Vignoble de Vaulorent
This straw yellow wine is already accessible, with a sappy, round almost creamy presence on the palate backed by good minerality and acidity on the back end. I expected a more acidic and linear wine perhaps given the vintage, but this Grand Cru quality wine reminded me more of the Preuses, with its sappy volume and fruit, than it did of the more austere and minerally Valmur and Clos.

2004 Guigal Condrieu
An intermezzo here, with this even softer and more mellifluous wine showing the first signs of a floral nose. In the mouth, very sappy and round, with the orchard fruit notes lingering on the finish. Maybe never destined for greatness, still this provided a very nice contrast to the style of the Chablis.

1989 Hermitage

1989 Chave Hermitage
Double decanted about 3 hours before the flight, this dark ruby red/purple wine turned in a bravura performance and was probably most taster’s second WOTN. The wine showed a fragrant expressive nose of blackberry and forest floor, with high-toned notes of spice and violets. In the mouth, wonderfully alive, with the sheer concentration of ripe fruit admirably balanced by its bright acidity and the almost gravelly mineral tastes on the back end. A great wine, with plenty of years ahead of it.

1989 Jaboulet la Chappelle
With an even deeper, more opaque purple color, this wine showed a slightly more reserved nose than the Chave, but with dark fruit and violet notes that were equally deep in my opinion. In the mouth, I was really struck by the great depth and purity of the fruit that seems to have undergone elevage in granite barrels, suffering only in comparison to the Chave in its slightly lower acidity and brightness. This wine would certainly benefit from some more years in the bottle, although I am not convinced it will ever rise quite to the level of the Chave Hermitage, but this is also a stylistic preference.

Guigal LaLas

1988 Guigal la Mouline
What can you say here, this one lived up fully to its stellar reputation. This wine was opened at the restaurant about 1 hour before the flight, with no decanting, so as to enjoy its evolution in the glass. And evolve it did, with the fragrant, even explosive nose of cassis, violets, bacon fat, and mineral dust continuing to build in power over the course of the evening. Just before we consumed the last drops of this wine, the aromas still cascaded out of the glass, almost as if a dense, violet-infused gas were displacing the local atmosphere. The 10% or so Viognier component in the Mouline seems to have paid off in spades, as this wine struck me as a sort of theoretical hybrid between a classic northern Rhone Syrah (in the style of the Chave or Chappelle) and a great Sauterne with its aromatic complexity and expressiveness. Equally spectacular in the mouth, the wine shows fantastic purity of dark cassis and blackberry, crushed stone, and spice framed by perfect levels of acidity. The result is fireworks in the mouth and this wine makes clear why no young wine can ever compete in sheer energy and brightness with a great wine drinking at its peak. A great great wine by probably anybody’s standards, clearly the WOTN...

1994 Guigal la Turque
Paired with anything but the 1988 la Mouline and perhaps the Chave, this wine would normally easily vie for the title of WOTN. Aromatically, most similar in style to the Mouline in its densely fragrant cassis/violet nose, even if it was more reserved. On the palate, the wine shows great purity and concentration and depth, but again with a bit less expressiveness due to its relative youth. The minerally structure of this wine is impressive, and only time will tell whether it will develop the same level of aromatic fireworks as the ’88 Mouline, but I could easily see this as a great wine in 5-10 years.

On to Bacar

Perhaps energized by all the great Rhones and the spectacle of all those monied relative youngsters at Myth, we decided to grab a quick cab down to Bacar to sample the 2003 Chave Hermitage to see what all the talk was about.

2003 Chave Hermitage
We drank this after only a few minutes in the decanter, although it evolved perceptibly in the glass. Dense inky purple in color, with powerfully dense aromas of soy sauce, plum, and blackberry. What a mouthful of wine!! Dense, beautifully extracted, this wine seems to redefine “unctuous” with its palate coating elixir of dark viscous cassis and minerals. The fruit is here is extremely ripe, but everyone agreed that there was no trace of heat or overripeness or heaviness at all to the wine. As David said, amazingly light on its feet considering the sheer volume and depth here. The overall balance on this wine really is impeccable, with perfect levels of acidity and mineral structure matching the decadent levels of ripe fruit. We were all somewhat mystified as to why anybody would consider this a controversial wine—another great northern Rhone in the making. The only additional comment, however, is that this is still ridiculously primary, so I would not personally open another one for 15 years if I was lucky enough to own a bottle.