Côtes-du-Rhone around one hundred patches - a consumer test There was an inquiry by Åkesson Vin to test their Côtes du Rhône Villages on one-liter Tetra. Reviews have appeared on several blogs, including
here . Recently, also other, a bit "easier" Rhone wines got some blog attention, particularly perhaps Xavier Vignon. So time for a test of true consumer spirit.
Six wines, having in common that they are in the price segment 89-99 dollars and are available either in the ordinary range or in the order range. Six testers, none of whom is an expert but all set about the task with enthusiasm. All have been drinking considerable quantities of wine earlier in life and have different frames of reference. For me, the wines are open, MSA is aware of prior to the origin. For the other four testers are the wines blind. We taste three wines at a time and giving three points to our favorite, the next two and one points to the things we like least.
Heat # 1 Wine first The wine is dense and violet in color and has a welcoming and open nature, both in aroma and taste. MSA think it smells like Christmas, A note of orange in the aroma while H thinks that it's round "good smell" and it smells ripe. M think wine has a sharper scent than 2nd and 3.an. I think it is mint in the aroma, along with blood and iron, and that bodes well.
bodied, fruity, tart and crisp, several noted with regard to flavor - that is a bit of everything, but in the end it's still fruit to dominate. Tannins allusive to fatlagring, but this is not the case. M a little note of leather, A thinks it is rounder than the rest of the race. "Really red wine," says H and it is just to agree.
It is a wine that is easy to like and the reviews can be boiled down to that it is round flirty most wine (young and naughty, like M).
MSA and H is the winner of the race.
During the evening we have deals with many widely distributed substances, such as working writers. So if this wine would be a working writer, who in this case? Jan Fridegård or perhaps Harry Martinson. Public with a certain austerity, a natural romantic streak and rich imagery. Earthy and rustic, yet imaginative. Yes, already here we begin to seemingly pull away with a daring and perhaps not fully substantiated literary historical associations.
2009 Mas Louise . Score: 12 Position in race: 2
The majority grenache (65%), the rest syrah. The producer is Domaine
Duseigneur , an organic farmer with 70 acres of land in the appellations Lirac and Cotes-du-Rhone Villages Laudun. In Mas Louise included - according to the importer's website - grapes from neighboring organic farms, and it is therefore also an organic certification of that. Perhaps that is why it can not be found at Domaine Duseigneurs website. Only natural yeasts, fermentation takes place in steel tanks, followed by light filtration. Contains sulfur. Alcohol content 14.5%.
Importer is
Arvid Nordquist . Available in Systembolaget's normal range and costs SEK 89.
Wine 2nd Although this wine is dense violet in the glass. When I smell it I think it is meatier than the first beat, interesting but also more difficult to manage. Indeed, they are initiating the reviews are not so positive: acid drainage like MSA, old SPINSTER + sock considers M who also find it flat and tinny taste. More acidic and coarser than wine a mean H. "A betrayal"; I have written in my block, not clear why - perhaps on the question of Harry Martinson received the Nobel Prize and then topped himself by, as M, committing seppuku with a pair of scissors. Who betrayed who in the sordid history is well not that easy to sort out.
But the wine is no treachery, however, offer it in for a surprise. It shows the evening's most radical development in the glass. It was the air it needed. A note gradually blueberries in taste and thinks it's "pan", H find currants. Astringency, fruit and acidity find a balance here in a different way than in the other two and it is also richer.
It gets A's, P's and my win in Heat 1st
Works Author? I think P suggests Moa Martinson, Vilhelm Moberg may also be an option. Here's an unerring ability to build up a story that becomes more and more radical over time, combined with an inherent warmth and empathetic humanity not the tough shell to hide in the long run.
2009 La Tour du Haut Vinsobres . Score: 15 Position in race: 1
60% grenache and 40% syrah. From the importer's website:
"Terranea is an negoicant in southern France /.../. wine to La Tour de Haut Vinsobres from Cave Coopérative de Saint Maurice sur Eygues who is a wine cooperative in the southern Rhone Valley. It covers 800 hectares of vineyards. /.../ Production includes a small part local wines, but also AOC wines with appellations Cotes-du-Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages and Vinsobres. Côtes-du-Rhone is huvudappellationen, but the area has a number of municipalities also have the right to use the Village designation and a few are also entitled to use its local name. Vinsobres, located in all the southern part of the Côtes-du-Rhone, but the law as late as 2005 . "
La Tour du Haut has not fatlagrats. Alcohol content 14%. Contains sulfur. Importer is
VinUnic . Available in Systembolaget's normal range and costs SEK 99.
Wine 3rd little brighter and thinner red than the other two. The scent is compared to the other difficult to perceive, this is a wine that does not give so much from him. "Sad and gentle nature," notes A, but also that it grows with time. H thinks that it's nicer and a little floral flavor. Bitter and rough, like the MSA. In comparison with wine 1 and 2, this is more weird, and although it also develops in the glass flowers, it does not look like number two. Somewhere here eating habits acids and tannins. M'll find an interesting combination of velvet and steel in the taste and appoints the wine to the adults in the wine round and thus to its winner.
This would probably be Eyvind Johnson and Ivar Lo - harshly and angrily, patience trying, but where it is possible to find at least a sliver of rock crystal if you persevere. Tour Krilon and Good night Earth-like, thick volumes you might want to read sometime but it never gets to the Trägudars country, Cape Farewell, Your time on earth and Mother marries comes between and since has been suddenly discovered Jack Kerouac and then work the authors stand gather dust on everybody.
Åkesson 2008 Domaine de Pauline . Points: 9 Location in race: 3
Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache in unspecified proportions. According
Åkesson's website is wine "comes from the family-owned winery Domaine de Pauline in the village of Cairanne. It shows nothing about winemaking and the process from vineyard to tetra. I can not find no one home to Domaine de Pauline, but it seems the references on the web as a Habil producer of simple wines.
Alcohol 13.5%. Contains sulfur. Available in the order range and costs where 99 dollars for a liter.
M is the one who, at some point in Heat 1, squeezing the wines come from the Rhone. What led to that end I do not know, maybe the wine was perceived as stricter and harsher than the new-world wines, one of M's reference frame.
Heat # 2. We agree that the wines in round two is just a bit better. It is found mainly in more balance between fruit, acidity and astringency. It would have been interesting to test the wine was finally here against the first heat winner, but by that time had the test been turned into a free association and drinking, which hardly allowed themselves to be harnessed to good conditions. Before that, however, we are highly concentrated tried the following three wines:
Wine 4th A finds a strong aroma and the wine is "Babben" in flavor - flirty and floral. H thinks there is alcohol in the aroma, but it's good and fruity with citrus tones. M describes the scent as "polite", with shells and "terpenes". "Forest" and "nice fruity" are other epithets. It is slightly thinner and lighter than wine 2 and 3 and is therefore "- perhaps somewhat undeservedly - overshadowed by the others. MSA - which is not over themselves fond of this type of wine - this ranks highest in the second round. So do I, after much shilly-shallying over the place. Although I have no structure and rigor, there is a purity that appeals. Of the tested wines, this closest to my preferences so that they appear right now. In the end it's probably the smell that determines - the woody, fresh move in the middle of all sötfrukt.
Domaine de la Janasse . Score: 11 Position in race: 3
50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre, 15% Carignan, 5% Cinasault.
Domaine de la Janasse is a well known producer, particularly of Ch9duP but the 137 acres are spread also over the appellations Cotes-du-Rhone, Cotes du Rhone-Villages. It also makes a lot
vin de table . The Côtes-du-Rhone has 42 acres. According to the producer's fact sheet is the annual production of Côtes-du-Rhone 60-80000 bottles. All grapes will, according to importer's website, from the estate's own plantations and storage takes place in cement tanks for 9 months.
Alcohol 13.5%. Importer is
Bristly Wine . Available in the order range, a six-pack will cost 594 SEK, which means 99 per bottle.
Wine fifth I disturbed initially quite difficult to piercing aroma and flavor, with alcohol breakthrough. Leather is plentiful. H finds "little berry smell", "mature taste" - there is no favorite. A think it's harsh and have "thick, swollen taste", "needles". M, which, inter alia, notes a mineral tone, makes a rather interesting conclusion: "Here we have the geeky winemaker. All the cutlery is in order in the box - there is an orderly wine!" There is no doubt that it is well-made, self-assured and cocky as and when it develops in the glass becomes more balanced.
It is turning into P's and M's favorite in the race and is ultimately the victor in the power of most other investments.
2009 Xavier . Score: 13 Position in race: 1
The wine is a blend of 65% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre, 15% Syrah and 5% Carignan. Grapes were taken from the Dent Elles Montmirail. Annual production is 100 000 bottles.
Xavier Vignon is a producer who has received a lot of attention recently, not least for its Ch9duP in the normal range. Xavier Cotes-du-Rhone in the 2009 bottling - in 2008, it was not because of lack of grape quality - has recently been endowed with 91 points by Parker.
12 months in steel tanks and neutral concrete tanks. Contains sulfur. Alcohol content 14.5%. Importer is
Vinovativa . Available in the order range and costs SEK 99.
Wine sixth M call the smell "camparikräkig" and "Rävkiss" (as opposed to "rävpiss" which is something completely different and much less pleasant). Meanwhile, this "port of maturity" and "Amarone port" and "good try". Long will this M mainly because it simply is so good to drink, but eventually it becomes wine two receiving first place because of it - as I understand it - is more interesting and consistently performed. A also chooses between two and three wine and stick to the end of this - precisely because of fatbehandlingen and that the wine is "around & good". MSA - which is allergic to oak - however, there are "bitter". "Kirsch" I have written on my paper, which was not what I expected. I - who of course know what it is in the glass - had expected a tighter, more complex story. This is far from vintage 2005, which I liked. 2007: an is a driven and streamlined creation, which I am about to give my highest score. But in the end, lacking the personality that would justify this.
A and H rank this up and it becomes an even fight for top spot.
2007 Guigal Cotes-du-Rhone . Score: 12 Position in race: 2
wine Needless no closer to the presentation, while there are test most odd in the sense that it is from the vintage 2007 - the current vintage of the monopoly - and that it stored 18 months in barrels. 2007. Importer is
VinUnic . The price remains steady at 99 crowns each year.
Guigal
website state
50% Syrah, 40% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre for vintage 2006th There is no reason to believe that the recipe for 2007 is different. Annual production is around the huge 3 million bottles. alcohol content is 14% and the wine contains sulfur. It is impressive to be able to keep that good quality in a wine that mass-produced.
All wines are samples. Thanks therefore to the importers of your likely contribution to the test!
