Super Northern Rhone Wine Tasting Featuring Jaboulet, Chave, Clape and more...

Okay we poppin champagne like we won a championship game

- Popping Bottles by Lil Wayne and Birdman 

The wines of the Rhone Valley are some of the most famous in all of France.  The wines of the Southern Rhone Valley starting north of the town of Avignon with the new house of the Pope "Chateauneuf du Pape" whose wines are based on the Grenache varietal but usually contain several other grapes five of which are white!

This region has a lot of great producers and we have three of the best on the table tonight representing wines from the Northern Rhone.  The wines of the Northern Rhone are very different from the South as Syrah is the star of the show here.  The wines of Cote Rotie and Hermitage are rare in that the regions are fairly small and the top wines are made in minute quantities like Guigal's La La wines made from three of the top vineyard sites of the Cote Rotie region.  Tonight we have all three of the famous La La’s from the 1998 vintage.   

The granite hills of Hermitage rise above the Rhone at Tain l'Hermitage where the river bends sharply to the east before resuming a southward flow. This gives the vineyards a direct southern exposure. Vines have been grown here since Roman times, and Pliney wrote favorably about the wines of the region. The locals claim that vines were first planted here by Phocaean Greeks around 500 BC. Although the evidence is not conclusive, Greek coins and amphorae dating back to 500 BC have been found in the area.

Some experts feel that the greatest maker of Hermitage is the firm of Jean-Louis Chave. The Chave family has been growing grapes at Hermitage since 1481. They have a reputation for making good wine in poor years, and excellent wine in good ones. They use low yielding vines (average age 60 years) and a late harvest to produce the ripest fruit, and there is virtually no intervention in the winemaking and bottling with no filtration.  We have two wines from Jean Louis Chave on the table tonight including the 2021 Domaine Jean Louis Chave Hermitage Rouge.

This is an incredible line-up of northern rhone wines young and old going all the way back to the 1974 vintage including the legendary 1990 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle which both of these sell for more than the price of admission!  Toni Lampasone will be making a special meal to accompany the tasting wines.  The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com

Super Northern Rhone Wine Tasting

Saturday, July 26th
7:30pm

2022 Yves Cuilleron Condrieu La Petite Cote

2023 Domaine Yves et Mathilde Gangloff Condrieu

1974 Domaine Alfred Gerin Cote Rotie

1990 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle

1999 Domaine de Bonserine Cote Rotie Les Moutonnes Rhone

2006 Delas Freres Saint-Joseph Sainte-Epine

2016 Domaine A Clape Cornas

2017 Domaine A. Clape Cotes Du Rhone

2020 Domaine Jean Louis Chave Saint Joseph

2021 Domaine Jean Louis Chave Hermitage Rouge

Menu

Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie

Tomato and Goat Cheese Bisque with Bacon Fat Pulenta Croutons and Crispy Leeks

Herbed Goat Cheese and Wild Mushroom Quiche

Syrah Braised Beef Short Rib Shepards Pie

Assorted Cookies and Treats

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any food allergies or dietary restrictions and chefs Toni and Dani will be happy to accommodate you.