The first wine of our inaugural "Virtual Offline" will be 2004 Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone. This wines is from old vines (30-40 years) and is primarily Grenache but there is a small amount of Syrah in there as well. Please drink before May 16. Make notes on any pertinent details (decanting, drank over 2 days, what food you had with it, etc.). Keep notes on your (and your significant other's) impressions of the wine.
Cheers!
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15 comments:
We will crack this over the weekend and then post some notes next, what, Wednesday???
For those who don't know Kermit Lynch, he is a famous Berkeley importer who is, according to him, one of the first to use all refrigerated containers to ship wine to the US. He specializes in French wines and, as for this bottling, actually often chooses the barrels of wine he wants bottled...
This is a little unusual, since it carries his name on the label..if you look very carefully at the small print at the bottom of the label, it tells where this actually came from and who is the winemaker.
KL typically demands that the wines he get be unfiltered before bottling...and often unfined....
He has a very interesting website, has a newsletter, and his books are worth reading...I actually buy quite a bit from his shop directly since there are often killer deals.
http://www.kermitlynch.com
thanks for the info!
J
Thanks for the info, Jim. I believe I'll be able to crack it open tonight while the inlaws are over and will share notes as they come...
We tried the KL Selections Côtes du Rhône Cuvée over the weekend...here are my notes from Cellar Tracker
Initial evaluation based on 1/2 bottle consumed with carne asada.... part of a virtual tasting with the VLG... more balanced than the Shiraz also opened...smooth, not much tannin, but a few more layers of flavor than the Shiraz....day 2, this has deteriorated quickly.... oxidization also has set in and there is a metallic quality. Message...??? drink em if you have em....should have finished last night. Now an 87
I don't know why this went downhill so fast from one day to the next.. to my mind that is not a good thing..
Would not buy again unless for some reason this was flawed.
Adrianne and I drank our bottle of 2004 Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone on Thursday night of last week. Here is a compilation of our thoughts:
The wine definitely struck me as a blend (I regularly drink Coppola Rosso as an inexpensive house wine and this was reminiscent of that).
The nose was not the primary high point of this wine. There was not much fruit and maybe even a little VA.
The appearance of this wine was lighter but not clear. I’m not sure if this wine was filtered but it did seem to have a bit of grit or velvet in the texture.
There was certainly heat on the back palate. The terms that came to mind were musky, a hint of darker berries, and a lot of wood (possibly even redwood – smelled similar to the wood chips they put in dog beds).
We did eat some cheese with the wine which seemed to make the wine dryer. In fact, the wine seemed quite dry for being only 14% alcohol.
As far as handling, we opened this bottle and drank it. We did not aerate it. We poured it and drank it on the spot.
Of course in the context of a tasting it is easy to become critical of a wine. I enjoyed drinking it and would possibly buy it again.
Here are my thoughts.
The nose doesn’t show much. Some heat, some wood and a small amount of red fruits. Not very interesting. The palate had subtle flavors. Not particularly soft. A fair amount of acid. This wine did not work for me. I know Grenache can show a lot of tannin which may be playing a part. Not terrible but I think there are CdRs that are in the same price range that would be more intriguing. Maybe a year would help….but I tend to think not. 86 pts.
Jason
By the way - I'm curious to know how subjective the parker rating system is. For me I went slightly easier on this wine and came up with 88. I'm not sure how to decide what a good score is for each of the categories etc...? Is it similar to a school rating? For instance, 70% is a low C normally, so is 7/10 in the overall category a average to poor rating?
Matt.. yeah.. think of it as a grade..and it is a lot subjective...and I think if I thought about it that way, I'd mark it lower.. but in my ratings, I wouldn't buy again anything I rate less than 88...so....87 for me is a no buy..certainly given my comments
Matt, I agree with Jim on scoring...a very controversial subject. I think the main thing is to set a standard you are comfortable with and stick to it. Then over time it will be consistent. Also we will get used to your scores.
Also, I am with Jim. As you learn what wines you like and utilize the information that is out there, there is no reason to be buying many "B" wines.
J
OK. So when judging a wine is it better to understand what makes "a pinot a good pinot" or "a cab a good cab" and then judge based on that knowledge? Or rather, is it better to judge completely on ones own tastes? For instance, I prefer wines to have a dark appearance... something so purple it’s nearly brown except around the edges. So when judging the appearance of a wine I don't prefer a lighter appearance. Make sense?
Matt, how you score is subjective. You can decide. A lot of people get pissed off about scoring...but I think they are big jackasses!
Here are my thoughts on "color"
http://thescrutiny.blogspot.com/2005/06/for-those-that-scorewhats-with-color.html
Sorry I don't know how to make that a hot link.
J
Ooops .. even though you don't see the entire link...highlight passed it and it will work ... or go to The Scrutiny and go to June 16, 2006.
J
so...what did Darren think??? Melisa?
"Long nights. Impossible odds.
Keeping my back to the wall..."
Hoping that the defined fruits, complexity and certain something (that keeps me coming back to a wine again and again)-- that were all lacking in the 2004 Kermit Lynch CdR -- was a reflection of the wine itself and not of a palate gone awry due to my recent extraneous circumstances of newborn baby bootcamp.
That the rest of the gang echoes my thoughts about this wine gives this blue collar wino hope anew.
I shared the wine with my wife and her parents with a bowl of black bean & chorizo stew. We opened the bottle 30-45 minutes prior to consumption and poured it into Burgundy glasses (thanks, J)
"...If it takes all that to be just what I am..."
Comments were as follows:
*Not a lot on the nose/front end
*Little fruit (dark berry)
*Little heat
*Definite wet wood (e.g. garden bark chips)
*Overall hard to grab any one thing that stood out well
*Subtle to a fault
Score: 76
"...Then I'd rather be a blue collar man..."
Next offline, please.
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