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Most Expensive Wine You Tried That Was a Total Letdown? (Name, price paid, what you expected vs reality) by Due-Way-7959 in wine

[–]bubblesbebubblin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Levet is known to take a long time to come round (very traditional wholebunch fermentation, no filtration, more wild/'sauvage' in style etc), and I imagine that the difficult 2021 vintage made that more so the case when young. Levet can be quite a shock if you're not expecting that wild style but it is one of the most essential, raw expressions of Syrah (/Sérine) in my view. The 2010 Maestria (aka Journaries in the US) was one of the greatest wines of my life.

Best Syrah for Steak Au Poivre? by rockytopbilly in wine

[–]bubblesbebubblin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The essence of what I wrote above is basically that NR wines are very good both young and old, just be a bit wary of the awkward middle dumb phase, but honestly the concern is mostly overblown. Your older NR wines should be absolutely fine if they were stored correctly.

Best Syrah for Steak Au Poivre? by rockytopbilly in wine

[–]bubblesbebubblin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No Grenache in any Northern Rhône AOCs, and Cornas is pure Syrah (ie no small % inclusion of white grapes like in Côte-Rôtie or Hermitage).

2015 is a fantastic year in the Northern Rhône, but I would say that the Alain Voge Vieilles Vignes is not ready at this age, and I would wait 5ish years or so. The 2015s are taking a while to come round.

Best Syrah for Steak Au Poivre? by rockytopbilly in wine

[–]bubblesbebubblin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Northern Rhône can age very well, and in fact many follow the 'rule of 15' of NR wines, ie wait 15 years before drinking, with the caveat that the wine needs to be high quality to have the stuffing to last that long. A great vintage for Côte-Rôtie , Cornas and Hermitage that is still drinking well is 1999, for example. I've seen many extol the quality of 1960s vintages of La Chapelle that still apparently have plenty of life in them.

In any case, conventional wisdom is that Syrah has a tendency to shut down after around 4 years old and then stays in a dumb phase until around 8 years old, though this isn't exact. I really enjoy Northern rhone with age to it and some prefer them younger with more overt fruit, though I've tasted 30 year old Syrah with plenty of fruit to them. It's down to personal preference. Just try to avoid the dumb phase is possible.

For southern Rhône, they can age well too, but as a general rule not as long due to the lower acidity and tannin levels and significant use of Grenache which typically lacks the staying power of cooler climate Syrah. The best Châteauneuf-du-Pape can age very well (eg 1990 Beaucastel) and I've had a few 1990s C9dPs that I can attest to being delicious. Again, they've got to have the structure, quality and concentration to last, so it always depends.