Wine Focus December 2023 - Benchmarks of Grenache

I tasted their Oiseau Rare last week, did not excite me at all. Would never have guessed Mas Amiel.

https://devinewines.ca/products/#?productId=18837

I tasted their Oiseau Rare last week, did not excite me at all. Would never have guessed Mas Amiel.

https://devinewines.ca/products/#?productId=18837

That's interesting. Oiseau Rare costs c.€20 here; roughly double Pur Schiste. Point inflation from Suckling at 93. RVF 90 and they are usually high pointers too. But I would certainly expect it to be good.

[Jenise]

Opened a 2001 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape tonight, and there is no reason to update my December 2020 tasting note. Open a bottle and fall under its spell.

Very artistic note, love it. And I love, LOVE mature LVD (mostly meaning anything before Cambie showed up and started throwing all that oak around).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, fortified wines from Grenache are a speciality of Roussillon near the Spanish border close to the Mediterranean. Like port they come in tawny and vintage styles as well as some other styles, including wines matured in huge glass containers subject to sunlight and heat. However their taste profile is quite unlike port's being much fruitier thanks to Grenache.

2016 Domaine Cazes Rivesaltes Grenat - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Rivesaltes (24/12/2023)
This fortified wines is made 100% from Grenache noir. It is medium++ bodied and very much fruit driven showing quite soft and rich woodland fruit (mainly blackberry and just a hint of raspberry and cherry) with marked sweetness but less earthiness and structure than Maury vintage from Mas Amiel, so probably less good with strong cheeses. However very good with chocolate and enough acid balance to be quite moreish helped by modest alcohol for a fortified (16%).
Posted from CellarTracker

Grenache/Garnacha is Mrs Ms favourite red grape and it's the 9th on my Cellartracker varietal list. Many of these are blends, but varietal Grenache can make an intense deep wine.

For most of December we've been on Lanzarote in Spain's Canary islands, returning for Christmas. The hotel wine list had only one non-Spanish red wine - that was an Italian Lambrusco - and all the reds we had from other than the Canaries were Tempranillo with a few Tempranillo dominated blends. Sometimes a varietal - such as Tinta de Toro - would turn out to be a synonym of Tempranillo.

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However, this was Tempranillo with unspecified amounts of Garnacha and Monastrell but we had it only once with dinner as there were other wines we thought better. Outside a hotel dining room, it is an inexpensive wine.

At the buffet lunch drinks were self-serve. Wines were from same producer, the white was varietal Airen, the red and pink both Tempranillos. Cheap wines with plastic bungs but easy drinking, inoffensive - OK blimey - enjoyable quaffers.

The red was a Tempranillo - Garnacha blend

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I'll see if we can open a more interesting varietal Grenache before month's end

Vacqueyras is one of the leading S.Rhône villages, just behind CndP and Gigondas in reputation. Its wines have good medium term ageing potential and can be gutsy, earthy and rich but rarely with the jamminess which afflicts some lesser appellations. It is large in area with three distinct soil and exposure types so the wines can be quite varied. The wines must contain at least 50% Grenache and 20% of both Syrah and Mourvèdre. I picked this up at Lidl, a very successful down-market supermarket chain (do the operate in the USA?), for <€9 which is an expensive bottle for that shop. It is not up to the best of the appellation which I have had from estates like Montvac, Bouissière and Armouriers but it was a decent tipple with Christmas left overs.

2022 Domaine des Gravas Vacqueyras - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Vacqueyras (27/12/2023)
Sturdy Vacqueyras with quite savoury fruit, decent depth, acid balance and structure. Still very young and could acquire more richness and complexity with some age. It paired well with curried goose remains from Xmas which probably helped to give an impression of freshness. Quite good.
Posted from CellarTracker