Northern Rhone tasting

Some quick notes from a Northern Rhone dinner Tuesday (for better notes, keep an eye out for an upcoming View from the Cellar issue):

First, the Chateauneufs were a pleasant surprise. Neither blew us away but both were quite good and not overblown (less of a problem in ‘89, but Brunel can be that way). The Allemand was sadly corked and I didn’t love the Stephan, which I found a bit blocky and volatile. The blue label is an Arnot-Roberts 2014 (forget the vineyard) that showed very well.

I really loved the Barge Cote-Rotie Combard 2008, even over the Gonon although the latter was the group’s top wine. Both the Gaillard and Texier ‘01 showed well also although they had a tough time following those two. The Gripa was also very good. Unfortunately it wasn’t a good night for La Chapelle, with a disappointing ‘91 and a possibly corked or maybe just off ‘88. The ‘83 was also showing very strangely and poorly at first but after about half an hour it opened up to be really quite good and classic.

Not pictured: an excellent bottle of Philipponnat Cuvée 1522 Rose 2008. Most of the group (not me, alas) had been to a large Rose Champagne tasting a few nights earlier where they had a bottle of the 2012 that people raved about and they agreed this was even better.