2008 Château Rayas Château de Fonsalette Côtes du Rhône Syrah Reserve

The 2008 Fonsalette Cotes du Rhone Cuvee Syrah is surprisingly light and lacking intensity for this cuvee which is normally a blockbuster. The dark ruby-hued 2008 reveals notes of animal fur and beef blood but seems rustic and angular. It is not one of the best examples I’ve tasted. Rayas has one of the most unusual terroirs in Chateauneuf du Pape with sandy soils and a more northerly oriented exposure. To understand these wines, one must realize that this is a cool-climate terroir in a warm appellation. Emmanuel Reynaud, the nephew of the late Jacques Reynaud, has now been the sole winemaker and administrator here for 13 vintages and he appears to have settled in comfortably. His 2009s have turned out well in this challenging, drought plagued vintage. The white wines are always intriguing. In some vintages they are absolutely spectacular as well as long-lived and in others they are somewhat bizarre with a tendency to oxidize. 2009 appears to be a top-flight year for the whites. I tasted the 2009 reds from an assortment of small barrels, demi-muids and foudres and putting together a score range takes some degree of extrapolation based on seeing all these different component parts. Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400