Cellaring Rasteau

We're talking CdRV Rasteau, not the fortified stuff, right? I don't have any experience with this particular wine. But I do wonder whether this could just be a sign of shutting down- a phenomenon pretty characteristic of CdP. I try to drink most CdP from good vintages very young (4 or less years from cintage) or more than 10. YMMV. best, Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

: Generally Rasteau produces big, deep, hot, generous wines with lots of : jammy fruit as appreciated by RP. (Interesting aside: just ran across : a copy of RP's '87 guide to the Rhone while browsing through boxes. : In Rasteau he mentions _only_ the coop as being of "excellent quality!" : It is a good coop, but far from the best in the village, even back then.) : They are best appreciated young or after 10 or more years. They do, : as Dale suggests, tend to shut down somewhat, but not as much as : a Chateauneuf IMHO.

Emery (and Dale), this could be and I'm going to let that last bottle sit for awhile longer. There was just such a difference between 2 years that I was afraid that, like many an RP-loved wine, the alcohol would dominate a thin frame of a wine. I bought this on closeout for $19, so I don't feel Too bad.

But they are worth holding; as the tannins resolve : they turn into some of the very best from the southern Rhone. Not light : praise that!

: La Soumade is certainly a star of the appellation, and typically very ageworthy. : That said, vintages differ, and I didn't taste any of the '99, so it may just : be that this _particular_ confiance won't age well. Time will tell, : please report back in 2010! :) Anyway it is inaccurate to say that : Rasteau doesn't age "gracefully."

Will do, but probably more like 3-4 years. I'd tasted 'dumb' CDP's before. They were closed, but you could tell there was stuffing there. This Soumade I worried about since I couldn't detect fruit or tannin (but this could be the grenache component, since I rarely find grenache to be tannic in the same way other reds can be).

: BTW, I see you are posting from a Sun 4! What a dinosaur, that's the : VME card cage thing, probably about 10 MHz, right? I think I used : one of these long, long ago... SunOS 5.8 seems to remind me of a : _text only_ embedded unix.

You know, I'm not sure, since that's the server that the university runs UNIX on, and I *know* they are not upgrading or putting resources into this, so, yes, it Could be that old!

Thanks for the responses!

Mark S (and Emery, you need to 'delurk' some more! Miss your excellent posting)

[] ] Will do, but probably more like 3-4 years. I'd tasted 'dumb' CDP's before. ] They were closed, but you could tell there was stuffing there. This ] Soumade I worried about since I couldn't detect fruit or tannin (but this ] could be the grenache component, since I rarely find grenache to be tannic ] in the same way other reds can be). ]

Hi Mark,

This is pretty unusual in a Romero wine, it makes me wonder if it's not slightly corked, or a bad bottle in some other way. I've not noticed a lot of bottle variation with La Soumade, but accidents will happen. Or perhaps it was cooked before you got it...

[] ] Thanks for the responses! ]

You're welcome, of course. I couldn't resist a chance to expound on Rasteau. :)

] Mark S (and Emery, you need to 'delurk' some more! Miss your excellent ] posting)

You're too kind, suh. I will perhaps, as time management has never been my strong suite.

-E