Paul Jaboulet Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert, 1994

The first thing I noticed when opening this wine was the smell of olives--green and black. It's a trait I love in Northern Rhone Syrah wines. I remember it in the 1984 Domaine Thalabert; and I remember it vividly from the 1979 Raymond Roure Crozes--one of my all-time favorite Northern Rhones.

Along with olives, I smell black and red fruits, cured meats, leather and spice. This wine has matured beautifully, as I have come to expect from Domaine Thalabert. Fills the mouth with flavor, smooth and medium bodied with a slightly funky acidic edge that makes the wine work for me.

Back in the days when the Jaboulet family owned this estate, I remember attending a large tasting of Thalabert in Ann Arbor, led by the late Gerard Jaboulet. When one taster, quoting Robert Parker, questioned the ageworthiness of the 1982, I remember Jaboulet's reply and the look on his face: "Between 10 and 20 years of age, make no mistake: this wine will be magnifique." And it was.