There is a Chinese proverb, “do not be over self-confident with your first impressions of people.” As the Chinese have been imparting wisdom on the world for several millennia, I figure that we should listen to them. I also wish that I’d heard that proverb before I went to the Liberty wines tasting in March and tried Paul Jaboulet Aine’s (PJA) wines. My main criticism was that the ’06 wines were far too young, and you could buy alternative Cotes du Rhone from older vintages for the same money. My other issue, which may be considered a trivial one, was that the new labels sucked. Jaboulet, by their own admission, have had dubious quality in recent vintages and since their acquisition in early 2006 by the Frey family (of Chateau La Lagune), the cobwebs have been dusted off and new life has been injected into this famous producer.I was invited to a dinner, showing the full range of wines, in Edinburgh last week, and my opinions have been altered a bit. Firstly, I still don’t like the new blue labels. I understand why they have changed from red to blue, it draws a clear line in the sand and says “everything with a blue label is from the reinvigorated Jaboulet”, but it also gets a big blue marker and scribbles all over the history of this house. Redesign and uncomplicated the old labels by all means, but keep a style similar to the older bottles. Having said that, the new Parallele 45 lables are pretty good… if only it wasn’t for the blue…
But beauty is only skin deep, and tasting the wines would test if, to quote Billy Connolly, “ugly went right to the core”. The one thing that is blatantly apparent is that the 2006 vintage is good. The Freys have improved quality significantly, and the wines that needed time are settling down and becoming drinkable. The older wines however from before the buyout, whilst not being bad by any stretch of the imagination, are not up to the same standard.
When VW bought out Skoda (bear with me, you’ll see where I’m going with this), the majority of people in the car trade thought that the German company were one spanner short in the toolbox. I thought the same about Jaboulet punting out the Le Petit Jaboulet wines. Why bother? Skodas don’t cost that much less than an equivalent VW, Le Petit wines don’t cost that much less than a basic PJA. Both cars offer similar performance, as do the wines, and both parent companies run the risk of people preferring the ‘lesser’ product. Fortunately, for VW & PJA, that hasn’t happened. People still prefer a Polo to a Fabia and more people will prefer the Parallele 45 to to the Le Petit wines.
2007 Le Petit Jaboulet Viognier
Peachy, with a significant aroma of soap. Dry leaves and under ripe peach come off the palate, which is a bit harsh and a bit boozy. With food, it will be fine. 7/10
2007 Le Petit Jaboulet Grenache Rose
Strawberry fromage frais and that’s it. Freeze dried raspberries on the palate, and it is ok, if a bit pricy. It’s a good wine for sitting in a beer garden in a pub with your pals with a packet of peanuts. 7/10
2006 Le Petit Jaboulet Syrah
Stinky. A little confected fruit and a farmyardy dirtyness, but it cleans itself up very well, with dark spicy fruit on the palate. A little thinner than I’d like but a nice wine. 7/10
These are restaurant wines, pure and simple. Certainly they offer nice wines, which are designed to go with food, but they are too expensive for what they are, and at a retail level, you can get better for the same money. In a restaurant however, charging £15 to £20 for these is acceptable and they would offer far ‘house’ wines than a lot of restaurants offer.
The Volkswagen wines are split into two, Pre Frey and Post Frey. The Post Frey wines are all showing much better balance and are simply better made while those made before January 2006 are, on the whole, flabby, jammy or just too unbalanced.
2006 PJA Parallele 45 Blanc
Light lychee aroma, on a very gentle nose. A soft touch of talcum powder too. The palate has a bit of booze and spice, but good soft fruit helps it balance out. 7.5/10
2006 PJA Condrieu Les Cassines
All soap on the nose. Then a touch of apricots. Palate is nice at the start, very gentle fruit and a bit of spice. Then a vineleaf aroma comes across. A touch warm but nice. 8/10
2006 PJA Crozes Hermitage Mule Blanche
Wood, nutmeg and spice. Palate is chunky and woody. Very ripe mango comes off the palate. A bit crude but a nice food wine. 7.5/10
2006 PJA Parallele 45 Rose
Strawberries and a bit of Turkish delight covered in icing sugar. Palate is clean with good fruit, a little veggie element to it and a nice clean finish. 8/10
2006 PJA Parallele 45 Rouge
Dark, concentrated cherry and bramble. Spicy with nice dry tannin and a bit of dark liquorice and chocolate. 8/10
2006 PJA Cotes du Ventoux Rouge les Traverses
Floral – parma violets and a long lingering raspberry. It’s dry yet with a nice, light dusty fruit to it. A bit hot on the finish with a kick of spice on the finish. Not bad. 7.5/10
2006 PJA Croze Hermitage les Jalets
Dark, slight stewed fruit and a lot of bramble and strawberry jam. Dark fruit on the palate with paprika and a bit of blackcurrent. 7.5/10
2005 PJA St Joseph Le Grand Pompee
A lot of dark, sweaty fruit. It’s got more fresh fruit on the palate, but an overwhelming sweetness. Again, dry spice and a dark, leathery aniseedy finish. 6.5/10
2005 PJA Cornas Domaine de Saint Pierre
Light raspberries, a good spice and a nice, slightly sweet fresh fruit to it. Dry, with light fruit and a gentle spice. A bit of crushed pepper and tobacco and star anise to finish it off. I like this, and look forward to ‘Frey’ versions of this wine. 9/10
2005 PJA Crozes Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert
Rich bramble and raspberry. Wild berries and a long minty element on the nose. Stewed meat comes in though and buggers it all up. The palate is dark, leather and with spice, pepper and dried leaves, all rolled up around a Bolivar cigar. A bit of heat to finish it off. 7/10
2004 PJA Hermitage la Petit Chapelle
Herbs. Mint, rosemary and coriander, then juicy berries. A little bonfire toffee and cherry. Brambles on the palate and a long spicy, oregano flavour. Nice, just too stewed. 8.5/10
2005 PJA Hermitage La Chapelle
Very rich and opulent and sweet. Full on bramble jam, peppers and raspberries. A bit of toffee, a wet stone minerality and then dark, concentrated, firm, tannic palate with lots of liquorice, leather, pepper and tobacco. A good wine, just pornographicly crude. 8.5/10
2006 PJA Muscat des Beaumes de Venise
Lemon honeysuckle and lime. Palate is sweet, starts off nice but you get a harsh, boozy, under ripe apple element. The weakest of all the wines. 6.5/10
I’m going to look forward to the next few years from this producer. Good work is being done with PJA and I will look forward to ’06 vintages of the Hermitage reds that I hope to follow on from the work done on the lower end wines and produce some fantastic wines. Now handled by Liberty wines, Jaboulet can get nationally distributed and if things continue, we could see the renaissance of this Rhone producer. The Chinese proverb may be right and my initial reaction to Jaboulet was an unfair one. I’m not writing the pre takeover wines off, but you would be wasting your money a bit buying the Hermitage wines. The others offer decent enough wines, but if you want to spend some money on Jaboulet, buy the ’06 wines. Good wines, which, with time and effort, have the potential to be great. I might even get used to the labels one day…
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