2005 Rhône Valley Reds - Extraordinary

In my effort to better understand the reds from the 2005 vintage in France and the wines from the Rhône Valley in general, I recently tasted Guigal's 2005 Cotes du Rhône * and Tardieu-Laurent's 2005 Vacqueyras */** and Chateauneuf du Pape **. I enjoyed all of these wines immensely, and while they exhibited varying levels of fruit, spice, extract, concentration, texture and subtlety, for the most part each wine expressed its terroir to me.

Guigal's 2005 Cotes du Rhône * was a ruby color, flinty on the nose with serious pepper and spice aromas. The acidity was a little strong ... the red fruits dominated by spice. To me this was a sound and interesting wine that for $15 makes a great table wine.

Tardieu-Laurent's 2005 Vacqueyras * or ** ($35) was deep plum purple. It had a big nose of fresh spring flowers, yummy red fruits, a touch of exotic dried spices (nutmeg or saffron, maybe savory) and a mellow note of whole white pepper. Fully extracted, with good minerality on the palate and very ripe, this is a hedonistic type of wine.

Tardieu-Laurent's Chateauneuf du Pape ** or *** ($55) was a slightly more complex wine in my opinion. This, too, was a deep plum purple ... just not as deep. And this had roses, minerals, and sweet dark berries on the nose, but there was fancy French perfume, too, with mellow spice characteristics rounding it out. The minerality and the fruitiness were nicely balanced, and it was nearly seamless. In a word, it was fantastic.

I would recommend all these wines for someone looking at these price points for 2005 Rhône wines. Having tasted about 10 wines from this vintage at a number of different price points, I heartily recommend it. The wines are well structured; they have excellent fruit, acidity, and tannins - and their component parts are often nicely integrated. What's more, the wines from 2005 are showing typicity of the Rhône Valley.

Up next - Notes from the California Wine Futures Tasting in D.C. this past weekend, and a final salute to Chateauneuf du Pape 2005 with a half bottle of "La Crau!"