Sept 17
Headed out for Domaine Tempier this afternoon, after a decent lunch at a seaside Bandol restaurant (great mullet and I am not talking about hairstyle). I have long been an admirer of these wines and of the pioneering gumption of the Peyraud family who pretty much single handedly created the AOC Bandol from modest beginnings.
They were unfortunately sold out of their white, of which they make very little, and which I’d been looking forward to trying, but we had a nice long chat with them and picked up a few bottles to take with us and drink at ‘home’.
2009 Tempier Rosé – slightly spicy sweet nose, with lots of fruit in mouth – very nice indeed, and until we hit the next producer, I’d have opined that this was close to as good as Bandol Rosé gets. They use 50% mourvedre, 28% Grenache, 20% cinsault, and 2% carignan.
2008 Tempier Classique Bandol – caramel and raspberry in this nose, great fruit levels, and smooth mouth feel. Tannic, but drinkable now. Nice.
2007 Tempier Classique Bandol – more concentrated fruit nose, purple wine, needs time but very nice and will be better.
Decided to stop at Ch. Pradeaux, having enjoyed some fo their wine in the distant past, and were very glad that we did.
Unprepossessing appearance – an old chateau built in the 18th century, and by all signs last painted sometime in the 19th. Lovely old style label – presumably no fancy designers here, although you never know as they do have a website. Wandered about looking for someone, vainly, and accomplished nothing other than some of our group encountering the leavings of the chateau dog who exhibits poor toilet training, when Madam pulled up and off we went tasting and looking at the winery, a combination of old technology with new.
We tasted a range of wines that were still available and bought a bunch for drinking and for bringing home.
2009 Pradeaux Rosé – this was bloody good! Spice in the nose great fruit levels and a lingering aftertaste hard to describe. It is a mourvedre cinsault blend and has great character. We had to pick up some (half a case) and had a couple of bottles of Tempier Rosé in hand, so intend to stage the Great International Rosé taste off tomorrow, starting with a bottle of Ch. Fontcreuse from the Bouche de Rhone that we’d picked up when we visited that chateau – a lighter grenache and cinsault wine. Report to follow. We also picked up a vertical of Pradeaux red, and I’ll post my notes on the reds when we do our vertical. Very impressive traditional style vins de garde.
Headed for Aix but ended up going around in circles (literally) trying to find a hotel. French hotels can be a cruel joke if you are driving to them. The car park is rarely right at the hotel, especially in the towns, and may be a block or more away. You need to have a card pass to get into them. To get the car pass you need to check in. To check in you need to be able to park the car to go and register. It may not have occurred to the French logic that something in this Catch 22 system might account for their lower than expected occupancy rate, or at least you’d think so.
After an hour of dodging hordes of apparently deaf and blind pedestrians we gave up finally, and went to our rented house in Sablet a day early after much pain – I swear I navigated the same traffic circle 18 times.
Grabbed a simple dinner (in my case steak et frites) at a local café, and tasted some local Sablet wines.
2008 Dom. Chamfort Sablet – a cote du Rhone villages, this wine showed slightly thin, and peppery, rustic but given the circumstances, a very passable utilitarian sort of wine.
2005 Laurus Seguret Villages – made by Gabriel Meitre in a neighbouring village, this wine had a decent fruit driven nose, good fruit on palate, and was well structured with soft tannins.
2008 Le Bois des Dentelles CduR – again, nice fruit, soft tannin, a pleasant young wine.
The Dentelles are the fairly high hills above this part of the Rhone, which have sections of quite jagged looking teeth or in French, dentelles on their crests. We will be venturing into the hills next week to placate She-who-must-be-obeyed, who has taken it into her head that nothing would please her more than visiting a lavender market located there.
2009 Brusset Cairanne – Les Travers – simple juicy fruity wine with some pepper. We intend too visit Brusset both at the Cairanne and at the Gigondas locations.