TN: Fu's blind tasting around the country with a vertical of Levet with French, Henriquez, Alfert, Carnes , Kane

FU’S WILD RIDE - A BLIND TASTING AROUND THE COUNTRY WITH A VERTICAL OF LEVET WITH FRENCH, HENRIQUEZ, ALFERT, CARNES AND KANE - (5/9/2020)

I’ve been doing my bottle share tasting with a few guys on the west coast for the past month to great success. I brought it up with Todd and the crew but no one was particularly enthused.

Finally (despite Todd’s doubt of how well the wines would hold up to oxygen), they agreed to let them blind them on 6 wines.

I thought a vertical of the odd years of Levet Chavaroche would be fun. I siphoned the wines into 4oz Boston Rounds on Monday and shipped them out that day to everyone for our Zoom tasting on Friday. Also tossed in a 1988 Chave Hermitage Blanc cause Jorge loves his waxy white Rhones

I was a bit fearful that my blind tasting choices would be ruined due to the fact that Alfert sent us a picture of him drinking a 2007 Levet Chavaroche on Tuesday, one of the wines I sent in the box and after he’d then realize that every wine was a Levet. Fortunately it was not spoiled.

Thoughts on Levet: Levet is an interesting producer, I feel like they have their signature (savory & high acid cote rotie) but the wines themselves are shaped significantly by the vintage. I’ve largely avoided 2011 and 2014 Levet due to what I found to be under-ripeness in fruit and the opposite end with 09/15/16 (even though 15 is tasting nice but not very levet with significant air). Maybe I’m wrong but just a general impression I get, especially in “under ripe” vintages.

2007 the general consensus WOTN. Only Kane believed it was a Northern Rhone, everyone else thought burgundy (?)

  • 1988 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
    fairly tired bottle, waxy , low alcohol, honey and vanilla with some fading apricot.


  • 2005 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    There’s that big structured masculine frame of 2005 but with the ripeness of the fruit receding and concentrating into a deep flavored core of dark red fruit. Olive and spice are staring to explore with dusty tannins and mild acidity. Wine coats the mouth with its weight and makes you smack your lips as the saltiness emerges.
  • 2007 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    It’s in the zone for drinking. Cool bright red fruit mixed with iodine and a well balanced cool meaty undertone. Generous on the mid palate with that savory complexity expanding slowly across the palate.
  • 2009 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    ripe little berries that are uber expensive on the nose mixed with a blend of pepper and five spice. Palate is a bit short but there’s ample fruit. Mostly primary
  • 2011 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    lots of under ripe green stem on the nose with fresh cracked pepper and a bit of red fruit. The palate is high in acid, fruit while mild is clean and light. It’s certainly very drinkable but the vintage is a bit too underwhelming palate wise.
  • 2013 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    just not ready at the moment. Closed up. Sweet fruit on the nose but everything else is shut down. Similar from the last time I had it a few years ago. Mostly dry tannin at this point

This was a great education, partly to again show how valuable blind tasting is in finding out just how little you know, but also to see the WIDE variance possible with one producer, one vineyard, across a number of vintages.

While I didn’t take notes on each wine, I remember something from each, though I’d rather touch on the highlights. The 2005 was CLEARLY Northern Rhone - I had it pegged as 2010 Gonon St. Joseph - and has aged incredibly well, showing no sign of decline. Olive oil, iron, and gamey, ripe dark fruited - was textbook Northern Rhone, but I felt more ‘old school’ in style versus what I’d call Levet, more ‘new style’.

The '07 had all of us fooled but Kane, who threw out Syrah at the last second, and was correct. 90 minutes in, however, it was showing clear Syrah characteristics, whereas early on it was delicate, mushroomy, bright red fruited, which is why most pegged it as Burgundy, including me. WOTF for all of us, just fantastic. If you have it, drink up, as it is SINGING right now.

'09 was clearly Northern Rhone, to me, as well, and less expressive than the others, though the nose showed a beautiful aroma of orange blossom flowers - very beautiful nose, which makes me think this wine would age well, and gain complexity. Hope that nose doesn’t degrade at all. Crazy drying tannins, which was one characteristic among all these wines but perhaps the '11, which had a bit of it as well

'11 was green pepper dot com, wow. That massive green pepper character had most of us locked at cab franc, if only because we hadn’t experienced what a super green note is with other grapes (Charlie revealed there were no blends, a la Bordeaux) until this wine. Really not a fantastic wine, and I was shocked when Charlie revealed that this is the same wine, same producer, as the other wines. Very little characteristically similar, in any way.

'13 was confusing. I got a dose of cake frosting on the nose, super primary and sweet. Color was purple, very light on the mouthfeel other than that same dry grippy tannic structure that dries your gums immediately. Many, like me, were thinking Beaujolais just because of the hollowness of the body on this wine, but there was more structure and tannic character that didn’t fit with a Beaujolais.

Again, shocking to see the same wine, same producer, be THIS variant just based on vintage. Frankly, it drove me away from Levet as a producer, as a result, since the wine’s success will be so heavily dependent on the vintage. Must be damn difficult to peg Levet blind in a mixed tasting as a result.

Thanks, Charlie, for a fun night, and a dose of humble pie. A fun way to trick us! Honored to be part of this experience.

lots of Levet-y in this plan. Great execution.

We continue to grhone at your silly puns Alan!

I hope you haven’t got ‘groana virus’, Matthew.

A really fun night that was as much about six friends enjoy each other’s company, cracking jokes and having fun, as it was about the wines. A humbling experience too, especially since I cannot even call the very wine I had within the week! I liked all of the wines we tried except for the Chave Blanc. The 07 La Chav was the easy win, and I guess I liked 2011 far more than Fu and Todd. It was excellent to me. Thanks Fu for taking the time and energy to organize this and walk us through all the wines. This virtual tasting worked 10x better than I could have imagined. And I was very pleased that none of the wines showed oxidation from the rebottling - the Chave was an exception, though someone in the group chat (Jorge?) suggested it was the style when I commented on the oxidative note. I do think the note increased it pitch over the evening to the point where I did not even like the wine. Overall, would love to do this again.

PS. Why did you leave Kane off the title? I know he’s a little funny looking but he is a nice guy.

Character limit wasn’t there on CT

As someone who drinks a lot of Levet, this is pretty interesting (and I also had the 07 recently, which I followed over a few days and didn’t like as much as I expected to).

I also wouldn’t give up on the 11. Level is notoriously ornery young and really needs time (and I may be misunderstanding Todd’s suggestion that it’s “new style” Cote Rotie”). In two dinners in the past year or so the 98 Levet was arguably the best wine of the night while it was only bettered by Allemand in an 04 horizontal.
Ok the other hand, I brought a 16 Journaries to a dinner blind earlier this year and no one guessed Syrah despite some serious northern Rhône drinkers at the table. The next night it was drinking great.

I was certainly humbled by this tasting. It was super cool and fun, too! I thought the 2007 was really nice, at first its color and flavor presented like a burgundy. Great red fruit, and a soft spice trait, with a nice followthrough. The 2013, Gamay-ish at first, with almost a sweet cream cheese frosting perception that Jorge picked up first, and I agreed with. It at first reminded me of the Morgon Corcellette 2016 I had the other night. In the end, it was a very tasty and drinkable wine. I did not like the 2009 one bit. I thought it was flawed and changed my glass. As it was, maybe not flawed, but my taste buds reacted to its over-green astringency and slight bitter unripe green pepper and rubber. Not a wine/vintage? for me! The 2005 was tasty, the consensus, was generally Northern Rhone 10 years old… A nice wine, my second best of the night. The 2011 was not memorable to me, just kind of a nondescript Northern Rhone.

These are my bullets:
2005 1st pass: iron, metal, iodine, dry fruit, cranberry, little dryness on tongue, Loire cab franc, but less screechy. 2nd pass, ripe beautiful structured, like Todd’s guess of Gonon St Joseph. guess northern Rhone, 10 years old (2)

2007 1st pass: pinot or burgundy, very nice, dusty dark red fruit, spice. taste great from start to finish, first bottle finished(1)

2009 1st pass: flaw, singed rubber green. New glass: meh, green, rubbery, underripe cab franc. don’t like (5)

2011 1st pass: Funky green pepper, little astringent, baseball glove, 2nd pass, more drinkable did someone say Bordeaux? more approachable (4)

2013 1st pass: pretty red fruit, cream cheese frosting, like old cali cab but not old cali cab from early 80s, 2nd pass, is it Beaujolais, like 2016 Corcellette from other night, 5 to 6 years old (3)


I liked the 1988 Chave blanc. It was aging with some flint and mineral honey, dried honey

Again, this was super fun and educational: 1 wine 1 vineyard, same grapes, different vintages, my guesses were from all over the world with different grapes, so. if you want to look good at a blind tasting just invite me, you cannot possibly do worse than I. Thanks again Fu for doing this, I know it was a ton of work

Extremely fun tasting, and a great idea by Charlie. I never would have guessed each wine was by the same producer as the vintage variations made the wines each remarkably different. I popped these a few hours before the tasting and took notes, then supplemented the notes during the “official” tasting.

1988 Chave Blanc - Bitter almond, honeysuckle, beeswax, poached peach, sherry. This is faded, shows some merit on first pass, but is clearly on the decline and has little, if any, freshness remaining. (I did not pop this one early, only the reds).

2005 Levet Chavaroche - Slight bricking in color and nose suggests this has some decent age on it. Moderate to mid-high acidity. Savory nose with nice underlying cherry notes, cedar, and a hint of shoe polish. I put down in my initial note that it was barolo or rhone. During the tasting the shoe polish, cherry, and savory cedar notes had me thinking maybe it was a 2000 bordeaux. After voicing bordeaux, Fu re-entered the discussion and asked us what GRAPE (singular) we thought it was, at which point I knew I was totally fucked with my bordeaux guess and backtracked only after the hint to claim northern rhone, and older than the 2010 guess Todd was tossing. I actually thought this tasted and looked older than a 2005. I had 2000 in mind.

2007 Levet Chavaroche - Younger and fresher with bright cherry, blackberry bramble, and good lift. A deeper fruit profile with black fruit, a hint of bitters, and a touch of olive on the finish. The olive note lingering on the finish confirmed syrah for me, and contrary to Todd’s position, there was no “last minute” guess. I just voiced my clear, perfectly accurate assessment after all these dumbass rubes said “it burgundy, 100% sure”. I will readily admit that I would have guessed this was far more than 2 years younger than the first. This is fresh, rich, and beautiful. Great wine.

2009 Levet Chavaroche - This is similarly excellent and carries a deep rich fruit profile similar to wine no. 2. Great blackberry, savory herbs, rosemary/mint, with just a hint of shoe polish. Lot going on in the aromatics on this one. Solid tannic structure and good lift. This has to by syrah. Perhaps a touch below the 07, but really a nice wine.

2011 Levet Chavaroche - Obviously young and wild on the nose. Initial pour shows rosemary, blueberry, tangy cherry good acid on the finish. With time, though, a super-forward green pepper note develops and overpowers nearly everything else nice about this wine. The green pepper is so distinct to me that it has to be Cab Franc. When told it is Levet Chavaroche, I can’t help but wonder why he blended so much green pepper into his syrah. It was a bad idea, and I did not finish this wine. Cannot recommend.

2013 Levet Chavaroche - This is obviously the youngest wine of the group. Wild blackberry nose but acidity is really high and tannic structure is really high. It has savory characteristics on the palate, and a faint hint of what E-Bob would call garrigue on the nose. But I can’t really figure out what the hell this is because it is lighter on the fruit profile and the acidity is a notch or two above the others. Folks are talking about bojo, but the structure here is beyond what I’ve ever experienced with gamay. My guess is that this is syrah. The nose has enough of the savory profile and that wild blackberry note, but I readily admit that I’m gaming here…Fu doesn’t have much Italian, and it’s not burgundy or bojo. That pretty much leaves northern rhone. Yay, I’m right. Suck that, Todd.

Nice notes Kane!

Kane is so $$$$