H. Sorrel Le Gréal Hermitage 1989

Okay, so if you've been keeping up with the blog- you'd know that I just recently wrote about an aged cabernet from Napa. Yeah, it was pretty great. But get this- right after I had that 1999 cabernet... I had a 1989 Hermitage. This wine was freaking 23 years old. It was a gift to my father from a close friend of his years ago. I'd like to meet this man, because this man gave us a treasure we won't soon forget. So for a little information about the wine, I'd like to tell you a little about where it comes from. Hermitage is one of the top wines from Northern Rhône. The vines here are planted on steep slopes along the Rhône River, where they enjoy ideal growing conditions for the exclusive grape of the region- Syrah. Hermitage wines typically age beautifully, yet for some odd reason they do not fetch the same prices as top-growth Bordeaux or top-Cru Burgundies. If anybody reading this knows why, please let me know!

Let me begin relaying my experience of this wine with the uncorking of the bottle. As soon as I cut the wrap around the the tip of the bottle, my stomach turned. The cork was visibly molded. It looked like the thumb of a pale and bloody zombie. It also felt like the thumb of a pale and bloody zombie. The corkscrew actually cut through the cork like a knife through warm butter. It was a miracle that we were able to get the cork out without any residue falling into the bottle. Fortunately for us though, the wine held itself together despite the cork's health. The cork gave everything it had to keep this wine alive, and I'd like for all of us to take a minute to remember this brave cork, as it did an admirable job. Thank you.

In the glass, this wine was actually glowing. It was a dark almost red-velvet cupcake red color, be it still or mid-swirl. I didn't take a sip of the glass for a good half hour because I was so taken aback by how beautiful it was. This wine was embracing the glass, the air, the world! Think about how many years it has been since this wine has felt fresh air- roughly 23 years passed since its bottling, and you could tell that this wine was embracing the open world after being dormant for two decades.

In flavor and bouquet, this wine was a showstopper. It slowed down time, yet then again this might have been the effects of having had a bottle of cabernet beforehand and a couple glasses of Italian sauvignon for pre-dinner. The typical dark, pit-fruits that you hear about in Rhône syrah were present in this wine, but they were far from typical. They had this rustic quality about them, it was something I've truly never experienced in a wine before. The term perfume does not do this wine justice when it comes to the bouquet. The nose was thought-provoking. Through the elegant oak in this wine, thoughts of the steep hills of Rhône raced through my mind. Pure leathery notes also brought me there, to the foot of a medieval winery in France, looking out on the calm river, the trees, the vines, and the sun-baked stone towns. The mouthfeel was supple, the lush flavors complimented the wine's great acidity. With a roast lamb, the slightest spice would emerge on the finish. The list of qualities goes on, but can be summarized with the notions of anything you'd ever dream about in the ideal wine.

My literary structure in the previous paragraph was poor at best. Let me explain why I'm okay with that. This wine did more than leave a great impression on me. I'm going to look back on this wine for a long time. As a matter of fact, I've dated the back label of the bottle. My thought process when drinking this wine was intensely focused on the way I felt when I had that glass in my hand, underneath my nose, tipped into my lips. From the very first sip, to the end of the bottle, I understood exactly what the winemaker was trying to tell me about wine, Rhône, and life. So if what I've written in this post doesn't carry much rhetorical effect due to a lack of logical structure, I apologize. But understand that I wrote about this wine on a purely aesthetic level. Sentence structure, grammar, and clear connections didn't concern me this time, as you can clearly tell. However, I think that once in a while, this sort of experience is a good one. I hope you'll all agree. Thanks again for reading, guys!