] I know this sounds like a film title ("Educating Rita" or some 'nother ] drivel), but inquiring minds want to know whether these can be cellared ] and appreciated with age on them. Case at hand: yesterday, I opened a Dom. ] Soumade 'cuvee Confiance' 1999. I first had this in 2002 and it was as you ] would expect, full of primary black fruits and big in a New World way. I ] thought it had the stuffing to continue 5-8 years no problem but then the ] bottle last night found the fruit fading, alcohol predominant, without any ] secondary transformations going on. I'm wondering if this will survive ] 'the Cellar test'? Luckilly I only have 1 more bottle to donate to ] science, but it makes me wonder: this is pretty much the same blend ] (grenache, syrah, mourvedre) that goes into Chateauneuf-du-Pape and ] Gigondas, so how come they can age much more gracefully than Rasteau? Or ] does fault lie with the producer? ] ] Mark S ]
Hi Mark,
Haven't had much time for the group recently, but I'll delurk for this one...
Confiance is one of the "middle" cuvées offered by Andre Romero, the owner and winemaker at La Soumade. In ascending order they are Cotes du Rhone Rasteau, Cuvée Prestige, Cuvée Confiance and Fleur de Confiance. This latter has been greatly criticized in the region for pricing, I believe it's near 40 ¤. Further, Romero makes a couple of vins de pays, and of course what is widely viewed as the finest Rasteau VDN rouge. He also makes a d'oré VDN, which I find a bit lacking in character.
Romero is often criticized for his pricing, and held up as an example of someone "ruined" by Parker -- as indeed prior to his "discovery" he was very reasonably priced -- having publicized him, and bleeding the market for all it's worth. (Some would argue this is perfectly legitimate of course, but all of Romero's faithful clients were pretty POed.)
IIRC the difference between "confiance" and "prestige" is the amount of syrah in the mix, the former often approaching a 50/50 split with grenache. I don't recall being told of large amounts of Mourvedre being used in any of the blends, but you may have more recent information than I. Both of these wines were made from vines at over 80 years of age in the day, but these may go into the "fleur" now.
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. 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."
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.
cheers,
-E