A truly extraordinary dish. It looked like something you might find at an ambitious gastropub, but didn't taste like it. The kitchen here is really doing good stuff right now.
Pale colour. On the nose - pebbles and, as a fellow diner commented, mountain streams. Some substance here, many levels - and just a hint of some edge, almost butyric...by far the nicer of the whites, and it improved with time, but I'm still not really ready for a white which is somehow not relying on acid for its structure.
Deep colour. Nose seems very advanced - the palate is a little more balanced, but there's still a hint of the pox here, as well as a natural-ish character.
Ready to drink but still a life ahead of it. White pepper, good acid. On the palate there's black olive, rocks, stone, some oil tones - this is proper stuff. An evening where you got to contemplate a few glasses of this would be a good one...but this was only the opener.
This is great - others (with more experience of this house) found more nuanced differences between this and the 07 - but to me this was just MORE - more taut energy, more substance, more clarity - there's no waffling here, no messing about - this is the real deal. Not my wine of the night, but perhaps the one I'd most like to try again.
Stick your nose into this - it's serious business. A hint of brett perhaps? Earthy, meaty and some dark fruits. On the palate - perhaps a little plusher than expected - real energy here, and perhaps the faintest hint of VA? This all feels like damning with faint praise - this is delicious, the kind of wine that is a privilege to drink - my handwritten notes say "image of landing a plane" - no great rush to drink these, but my sense is that they will not get any better than this.
A generous backup opened at short notice. Energy here - earth, sweat, iron, blood. As time goes on the initial intensity fades and the bones of the acidity become more obvious - this is grown up wine for grown up people.
An altogether larger proposition than what came before it. On the nose - the oak is there. A sense of posh parma violets and a hint of campfire. This is really well put together stuff - if you had a wine friend who said they didn't like Northern Rhone - this could well be the wine to convince them.
The nose was a little funky, started off a little disjointed perhaps. The palate however has it all together - a high C syrah energy, but depth and complexity there too - there's soil, red fruits and a hint of nosebleed. I wonder if a different glass, or just more time would have brought the nose more in harmony with the palate? Either way - lovely stuff and just what I find exciting about syrah.
Well clearly senses are dulled at this stage, and indeed my writing is hard to decipher, but let's have a go. A little volatility on the nose, and a bit like the wine before it, a palate which seems far more together. There's still that lovely zinging, singing acid and it keeps going.
2016 Domaine Bernard Gripa St. Joseph Blanc Cuvée Le Berceau
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
Pale colour. On the nose - pebbles and, as a fellow diner commented, mountain streams. Some substance here, many levels - and just a hint of some edge, almost butyric...by far the nicer of the whites, and it improved with time, but I'm still not really ready for a white which is somehow not relying on acid for its structure.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue
2010 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph Blanc Les Oliviers
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
Deep colour. Nose seems very advanced - the palate is a little more balanced, but there's still a hint of the pox here, as well as a natural-ish character.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue