I tasted the 2004 La Millière Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the Rhone Valley. A complex wine with aromas of red currant and strawberry with some peat. The flavors of red fruits comes through right away with red cherries on the mid palate. This wine has a nice focussed acidity that goes well with the fruit. Rated 92 pts by Steve Tanzer and I agree with that.
Chateauneuf-du-Pape
September 7, 2008 by 1 Comment
2006 Alain Corcia Chateauneuf-du-Pape “Crème de la Crème”
Our AWS chapter will be tasting Rhone wines next week and I picked up this Chat du Pape for the tasting. I thought I would give it a go before the get together to see how it is.
The color is a gorgeous deep ruby red with purple tinges. Hints of youngness are apparent in the color. It is dark and you cannot see through it.
The nose is unusual with some very subtle hints of red cherries mixed with herbs, vegetables and eucalyptus.
On the palate there is a nice body and heaviness that wraps around the mouth. Very complex with flavors of mint, red raspberries and green peppers. It has a nice balance of tannin and acidity. It is nicely structured and rock solid. This is a delicious wine that should improve over the next 5 years.
I would rate it 90 points.
A hit and a miss
March 3, 2008 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been a little lax about posting lately. You know, life gets in the way sometimes of the fun. It’s not that I haven’t been tasting. I have lots of tasting notes to share. I just haven’t got around to putting them up here. So let me tell you about a couple of wines I had recently.
First let’s talk about the miss.
I had high hopes for this Artesa 2003 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. A $40 bottle of wine on sale for $30. Not a bad deal, I thought. And it might have been good. It had a gorgeous deep dark color. On the nose aromas of dark red fruits and caramel wafted in. It almost reminded me of rollo candies. It also smelle of dusty wood. On the palate it had initial big red fruits and beautiful cherries, firm tannins, and a nice acidity. The big fruit dissipated quickly leaving a rather thin mid to end palate. However, it did linger for quite a while teasing you. I rate this wine a little bit lower because the alcohol was out of balance. It was noticeably hot. The label says 14.5% but it tasted like it was even higher. For $40, or even $30, I expect a balanced wine. I don’t think I would spend that money again for this wine.
Now, for the hit I had to go across the pond to France.
The 2005 Domaine Grand Veneur Côte du Rhône Village I found to be extraordinary! Just what I like in a French wine. It had a really nice, dark, ruby red/purple color. The nose was amazing to me. On my first sniff my mind thought – “Hmmm, chokecherries!” It had bright red fruits, chokecherries, red licorice and raspberries on the nose. It was even better when I tasted it. Super balance of the red fruits, raspberries, cherries, licorice, and hints of like roasted green vegetables. It had smooth but firm tannins, a balanced acidity and a lingering long finish. Just delicious! It didn’t taste hot at all, though the alcohol was the same 14.5% as the previous wine. This was one excellent bottle!
French Whites – Hit or Miss
January 29, 2008 by Leave a Comment
This past weekend I opened up a couple bottles of French white wine. I thought they would pair well with a dinner I was making and I was right. While it’s true that I much prefer red wines to white I have been trying to expand my palate to include interesting and unusual wines. I am getting tired of the usual California white wines. Never been a CA chardonnay drinker. I enjoy New Zealand sauvignon blanc now and then, but even that is getting old now. I want to find more refined, more complex, less sweet and less acidic whites to go with food.
I love Alsatian rieslings. Mostly for the fact that they pack unbelievably complex flavor in a nice dry white wine. I much prefer this style to sweeter style whites. The best one I can find locally is produced by Arthur Metz and comes under the label of Cuvée Anne-Laure. I have had previous vintages and found them full of interesting flowers and fruit. This was the first 2006 that I have tried. It was certainly different than previous vintages in that the floral notes were less apparent (though there) and honey predominated on the nose and on the palate. I could detect aromas of melons and, believe it or not, juicyfruit gum along with the honey. It wasn’t sweet at all which I liked very much. I served this with some ham wrapped melon balls and it paired very nicely. I would say I was a little disappointed in the way the honey overpowered and I think I prefer the 2005 over the 2006. Never the less it is a solid effort from Asace.
Ah, Chateauneuf du Pape! I adore Rhone wines. I had a bottle of the 2003 Eric Texier Chateauneuf du Pape blanc about a year ago and I have very fond memories of it. A gorgeous dry fruity Rhone white that was extremely food friendly. When I made a chicken and cheese soufflé on Sunday this is the wine I had in mind. Unfortunately my expectations fell short when I found the bottle was flawed. I had a feeling when I pulled the cork that it would not be ideal. The cork was brittle and you could tell that the wine had seeped all the way to the end. Not a good sign. The bottle wasn’t ruined but it was certainly off. It had a slightly floral nose with eucalyptus aromas. I could also smell ethyl acetate indicating that there was something amiss. The wine did have some very nice flavors of pears and dried apricots that were unfortunately covered up by a bitter off taste that I would compare to a saccharin aftertaste. So, this one was a miss. I know this is usually a solid solid white wine and will definitely seek it out again.