Friday, June 06, 2003
Last week the trip to Santa Barbara and Paso Robles was an experience in expensive USA based Rhone wines. While many of the new winemakers are making stunning wines, most of them are priced north of the 20 dollar mark simply because their costs of land and new facilities are so high. So armed with $25.00 I visited San Diego's best discount wine shop and came home with three bottles that were simply gems in any price point.
2001 Col de Vents Corbieres ($5.99) Kysela Imports
Damn does this wine have great QPR (quality price ratio). It's a lovely wine that can easily age five to seven years. Already the saturated blueberry nose and black raspberry flavors are oozing through the glass. With a solid base of carob, cassis, black plums, the wine even throws off some granite and chunky monkey like ice cream flavors, but its most revealing trait comes as it opens up, as that unmistakable high Garrigue scent of rosemary, thyme, sage and basil all interwoven with forest floor aromas is so evident. This wine is downright impressive and should be purchased in large quantities by all who like great bargain wines.
2001 Comme a Cayenne St. Chinian ($7.99) Hand Picked Selections
Bottled in the town of Roquebrun, which is in the hills above Saint Chinian and all of about 25 kilometers from the sea comes this deeply concentrated food wine that pairs up so very well with roasted veal like it did last night at Arterra. This richly colored, almost opaque dense purple wine has a chalky base from the calcium limestone laddened soil. Already showing the scent of tart blueberries, raspberry and strawberry, this blend that includes some old vine Carignan flows with flavors of berries and black plums. The stony, minerally outer shell, and the fruity inner core is a sheer party for the mouth, as the magnificent blueberry pie finish is downright enthralling. This is a gem and I'm heading back to buy more today.
NV (2001) Plan Pegau ($9.95) Hand Picked Selections
Made by the family that brings you the most rustic of Chateuaneuf du Pape's, the Ferauds, this declassified red wine has all the usual Chateauneuf du Pape grape suspects plus some other things in the mix that likely tend to end up in wines that are made to taste like California Cabernet or French Bordeaux. No one is really quite sure of what the real blend is, or what ended up in the old barrels that were topped off with some juice from a newer vintage which is why the wine is Non Vintage.
Who cares. This wine is simply for the money better than almost all vintage designated stuff coming from the Cotes du Rhone. It's a decadent, hedonistic, old school style of red wine, jam packed and loaded for bear with raspberry and strawberry fruit on the attack, earthy black cepes and truffles in the middle and a long and lingering finish of berries and plums. I don't know of any wine in this price category that can be as food friendly or as enjoyable if you like wines with some sauvage and terroir. I drank this along with two very informed wine professionals. Both gave this thumbs up and were as impressed as I was...Grab some before they're gone.
All these wines fit the flavor profile of the Southern Rhone/Languedoc that I love. But what I really love is the prices. Also opened last night by a good friend was the 2001 Turley Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County Zin. At about $60-75 a bottle retail, and about twice that on restaurant lists, the fact that it is a ripe, vibrant almost Australian feeling Zinfandel becomes meaningless. I could buy nine bottles of the above three wines and be drinking to my hearts content....who care's if they're French wines..The winemakers didn't vote against the USA!!!
Andy Abramson
E-Mail: aabramson@winescene.com
2001 Col de Vents Corbieres ($5.99) Kysela Imports
Damn does this wine have great QPR (quality price ratio). It's a lovely wine that can easily age five to seven years. Already the saturated blueberry nose and black raspberry flavors are oozing through the glass. With a solid base of carob, cassis, black plums, the wine even throws off some granite and chunky monkey like ice cream flavors, but its most revealing trait comes as it opens up, as that unmistakable high Garrigue scent of rosemary, thyme, sage and basil all interwoven with forest floor aromas is so evident. This wine is downright impressive and should be purchased in large quantities by all who like great bargain wines.
2001 Comme a Cayenne St. Chinian ($7.99) Hand Picked Selections
Bottled in the town of Roquebrun, which is in the hills above Saint Chinian and all of about 25 kilometers from the sea comes this deeply concentrated food wine that pairs up so very well with roasted veal like it did last night at Arterra. This richly colored, almost opaque dense purple wine has a chalky base from the calcium limestone laddened soil. Already showing the scent of tart blueberries, raspberry and strawberry, this blend that includes some old vine Carignan flows with flavors of berries and black plums. The stony, minerally outer shell, and the fruity inner core is a sheer party for the mouth, as the magnificent blueberry pie finish is downright enthralling. This is a gem and I'm heading back to buy more today.
NV (2001) Plan Pegau ($9.95) Hand Picked Selections
Made by the family that brings you the most rustic of Chateuaneuf du Pape's, the Ferauds, this declassified red wine has all the usual Chateauneuf du Pape grape suspects plus some other things in the mix that likely tend to end up in wines that are made to taste like California Cabernet or French Bordeaux. No one is really quite sure of what the real blend is, or what ended up in the old barrels that were topped off with some juice from a newer vintage which is why the wine is Non Vintage.
Who cares. This wine is simply for the money better than almost all vintage designated stuff coming from the Cotes du Rhone. It's a decadent, hedonistic, old school style of red wine, jam packed and loaded for bear with raspberry and strawberry fruit on the attack, earthy black cepes and truffles in the middle and a long and lingering finish of berries and plums. I don't know of any wine in this price category that can be as food friendly or as enjoyable if you like wines with some sauvage and terroir. I drank this along with two very informed wine professionals. Both gave this thumbs up and were as impressed as I was...Grab some before they're gone.
All these wines fit the flavor profile of the Southern Rhone/Languedoc that I love. But what I really love is the prices. Also opened last night by a good friend was the 2001 Turley Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County Zin. At about $60-75 a bottle retail, and about twice that on restaurant lists, the fact that it is a ripe, vibrant almost Australian feeling Zinfandel becomes meaningless. I could buy nine bottles of the above three wines and be drinking to my hearts content....who care's if they're French wines..The winemakers didn't vote against the USA!!!
Andy Abramson
E-Mail: aabramson@winescene.com
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