As the Crozes flies

Jaboulet 2006 Crozes-Hermitage (Rhône) – Watery and insipid, as if liquid smoke had been added to the most timid of artificial blackberry drinks-in-a-box. Embarrassing. (4/10)

Smarter than your average Thalabert

Jaboulet “Domaine de Thalabert” 1998 Crozes-Hermitage (Rhône) – Hard as these always are, but much more generously aromatic than they have been of late. Rhône syrah, unquestionably, with the nanoparticle leather and dried remnants of dark green herbs, but adding that wall of structure so inimitably Jabouletesque. Quite appealing, but you’ve gotta like tannin. (1/10)

Jalets doughnut

Jaboulet 2004 Crozes-Hermitage “Les Jalets” (Rhône) – Oppressively hard. tannic, and sharp-edged, with a touch of Band-Aid and a heart, skeleton, and musculature of charred blackness. Are these wines ever enjoyable? Does Jaboulet make wines for people to drink, or am I supposed to seal my driveway with this? (6/09)

The church of mold

Jaboulet 1990 Hermitage “La Chapelle” (Rhône) – Corked. (6/08)

Goin' to the chapel

Jaboulet 1995 Hermitage “La Chapelle” (Rhône) – La Chapelle is one of the more maddening wines from this region; sometimes it’s terrific, sometimes it’s meager, and sometimes it’s simply disappointing. This is one of the former, though that may have more than a little to do with its surprisingly forward nature. Firm minerality is delivered, stone by stone and with a gentle hand, amidst a humid vapor of generalized meatiness and herbality. The wine is as structured and solemn as the little chapel that is its namesake (even if the grapes themselves are from elsewhere), but for whatever reason it’s drinking quite well at the moment. (8/07)