2019 Xavier Vignon Côtes du Rhône

Community Tasting Notes (8) Avg Score: 87.5 points

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  1/7/2024 - ACellarCat Likes this wine: 89 Points

  Ruby coloured Pinot Noir with medium intensity aroma consisting of dark fruits. Initial tasting had the sweetness of ripe dark fruits, followed by a mild peppery sensation.
  
  Notes of black currants and rhubarb became more evident an hour after decanting as the initial forward alcohol ebbed away. I gathered a pleasant cinnamon aftertaste thereon, which made me appreciate this wine even more.
  
  Nonetheless, the wine is not complex. It tasted smooth, medium-bodied, with rounded tannin and mild acidity, all of which adds to its restraint character.
  
  Feels like this wine is still developing in the bottle -- if you don’t mind waiting a few more years should you have extra bottles. However, you can most certainly enjoy it now without having to wait. It will complement wild game, red meat (lamb, mutton and duck), cured meats, and high fat cuts in stews and grills.
  
  Open a bottle on a quiet wintry or tropical stormy night when you are planning to wind down. Allow it to accompany you through dinner and the after hours as you decompress. Let me know how it goes!
  
  [Update: To my pleasant surprise, the wine continued to evolve in a refreshing manner, with licorice and mint coming forward to dominate in aroma and taste six hours later. It felt like a sneak attack on my senses by a kitten!
  
  Alas, this took place with my last glass. Given this unexpected development, I have placed a Note-to-Self to try this wine 12 hours and 24 hours after decanting my second bottle -- at a later date.
  
  In my original post, I rated it 88 but I have upped it to 89 given its surprising and pleasant evolution six hours later. This is a delightful bottle made by an alchemist.]

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  1/4/2024 - mrkurtz Likes this wine: 89 Points

  Black ripe fruit, spice, black pepper, camphor. A little hot but quite elegant. Sweet acidity and woody.

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  12/5/2023 - Clemster wrote:

  This deep ruby Côtes du Rhône 2019 is a blend of 85% old-vines Grenache (planted nearly a century ago), 10% high altitude Syrah, with a healthy 5% of Xavier’s signature low pH Mourvèdre. The grapes were hand-harvested, fermented at moderate temperature, and matured in a mix of concrete tanks and wooden truncated cone vats. In the glass, the wine has a not-quite-opaque dark ruby color, with soft-edged flashes of crimson at the edge. Aromas of black currants, prune plums, licorice root, and crushed peonies, along with a cornucopia of herbes de Provence and spices move in and out of the foreground as the nose evolves in the glass. According to Susan Crawshaw, my colleague in Pennsauken, “this smells like my blackberry-rhubarb jam as it’s approaching its set point, right down to the sage leaf I tuck in each jar.” On the palate the wine is elegant, restrained, and refreshing, with juicy black fruit flavors that echo the nose, along with an unmistakable suggestion of kalamata tapenade, and a smoky, mildly peppery finish. James Suckling’s 91-point review read: “Ripe-cherry, blueberry, orange-zest and licorice aromas. It’s medium-bodied with ripe, rounded tannins. Juicy, bright and flavorful.” Drink now–2026
  
  Rack of lamb with Provençal herbs and garlic, grilled butterflied leg of lamb, and grilled steaks are just some of the pairings that have worked perfectly with this wine.

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  11/18/2023 - Thefatbastard wrote:

  Nez engageant sur les fruits noirs avec notes de torréfaction. Très fruité en attaque, assez souple, tanins fins, encore le fruité noir, réglisse, et des notes fumées. Chaleur en finale.

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  12/2/2022 - thomasbahr80 Does not like this wine: 89 Points

  Colour: medium ruby to garnet red, legs are medium, no sediment
  Nose: blackberry, black plum, some gaminess and slight vanilla
  Mouth: blackberry, cranberries, nice acidity in balance with fruit sweetness, rich and flavourful
  Finish: some black tea, fruit sweetness, slightly peppery, cherry, rosemary, garique, some fine bitterness at the end like graphite

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