It is/was Syrah Day – drink this!
Côtes du Rhône Wines got in touch a week before Syrah Day 2015 (which I did not know was a thing), with an invitation to try 6 wines that they picked out for an online tasting (didn’t know that was a thing either). I’m not entirely sure why they picked these ones but who the hell am I to turn down a wine tasting? The tasting was hosted by ambassador Jamie Goode of Wine Anorak (he is also a journalist/wine columnist for The Sunday Express – pretty cool gig).
So yeah I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of French wines in my short yet directionless life – though I make no claim to being an expert in any kind of wine, especially those from France. This was a good chance for me to get some grounding in this AOC – the UK is apparently the largest market for the various Côtes du Rhône wines appellations – currently taking in 20% of the region’s total exports, so I should probably should have done this a while back!
The wines picked out varied in price from about £6-20, available from various merchants – all the way from Sainsbury’s to Berry Bros & Rudd. I guess the only logical thing to do now is go to Côtes du Rhône and disappear off the face of the earth for a few weeks. Am I allowed to do that?
Anyway, onto the tasting…
Gabriel Meffre – La Chasse Reserve (£6.00 – Sainsbury’s)
Rating
Nose
Subtle and/or weak – smells kinda generic to me but I’m sure a master sommelier could pick out some subtleties/hand me my backside…
Aerated/airing: More noticeable nose (nose-ticable? wat), ‘medium potency’, berries & fruit. My notes for this wine are super autistic.
Palette
It’s light – with cherries, earthy. Again, kinda generic and nothing to write home about. Hard to pick out much unusual or witty stuff here (but maybe I was never funny in the first place)
Aerated/airing: Brings out more woodiness, exaggerating more of the same flavours but not really unlocking any additional ones.
Finish
Quite short. More cherries, which disappear pretty quickly. Last to go is that lingering earthiness with a slightly metallic(?) kick.
Verdict
Kinda generic – nothing really wrong with it asides from that. Very drinkable but not memorable by any means. At £6 it feels like a bit too much. ‘Table wine’ or something to warm the palette up with.
Delas Frères – St Esprit (£9.99 – Majestic)
Rating
Nose
Oak, cherries – same old I guess!
Aerated/airing: oak/richness and with a little bodacious herbaciousness – a bit better!
Palette
Stuff gets exciting here. Your tongue shall tingle. it is a cooling, refreshing taste. There’s also a kind of lingering meaty richness. the tannins are well balanced – improving, not derailing this lovely rich oakiness.
Aerated/airing: More herbal, sharper but remaining nicely balanced. also brings out the oaky richness more. Good but optional.
Finish
Nice and long. A creamy, oaky celebration of taste that endures and improves your life, holding all that flavour together for quite some time.
Verdict
It is the wine that satisfies! Buy it! Try pairing it with everything! In one’s humble opinion this is fantastic value at £10.
Domaine Arnaud Chaume (£12.25 – Berry Brothers & Rudd)
Rating
Nose
Bittersweet things! black cherries, dark berries, the archetypical ‘big red’
Aerated/airing: Amazing cherry bouquet and some herbaceous JOY. ‘Bathroom cleaner fresh’
Palette
Black cherries, dark fruit and eventually after much effort…apples. A little bit of a familiar bitter spice. i am not sure which one – maybe cloves? Spicy and sharp and spicy and sharp and… Reminds me quite a bit of a good Puglian Primitivo.
Aerated/airing: Aerates nicely, bringing out more of the slightly sweet, apple flavours.
Finish
‘Tangy Tannins’ ™ (not actually a TM I don’t think). Is let down a little by the finish, which isn’t as long as you’d hope and ends up going from tangy to a little harsh
Verdict
Feels a wee bit overvalued for what you’re getting, pleasing on the tongue but let down somewhat by the finish. Aerate or decant for more ENJOY.
Le Clos du Caillou (£16.75 – H2Vi)
Rating
Nose
Huge, rich, very creamy. Cherries and black fruits. Reminds me of a shiraz from Barossa or something
Palette
Anticlimax. Not as big on the palette as I hoped. Some say ‘elegant’, I say uncharismatic. Extremely very easy drinking though with not too much character. Put another way, weighty and smooth but without the je ne sais quoi of a super good ‘big red’.
Aerated/airing: When given time and/or aerated, it really opens up with a lot of novelty/complexity in the dark cherry thing going on. You really have to air this one I think
Finish
Speedy – so speedy I don’t really have anything written for the finish.
Aerated/airing: But, when aerated the black cherry notes hold on to your tongue for much longer and you get something beyond that ‘wait, did I just drink a wine?’ feeling
Verdict
Is very hard to say much about until aerated. Initially I had it down as ‘a simplified alcohol delivery machine’ at first but then found that, given time, it was more complicated and more pleasing than I took it for. First impressions are quite often incorrect impressions, right? And we’ve all been there. So… compulsory aeration, then?
Sainte-Agathe, Domaine Georges Vernay (£19.95 – Berry Brothers & Rudd)
Rating
Nose
Herbal, maybe violet or something homeopathic (I know next to nothing about homeopathy). Slightly medicinal but in a good way: ‘apothecary’, not ‘hospital’!
Palette
Initially it’s like ‘nah son that’s not a fantastic taste’ and then within the space of 15 minutes or so it has really grown on me. Which is a good sign I think. There are herbs, something musty and perhaps leathery. Later it opens up to something more pure and ‘spearminty’ My tasting notes read ‘CRYSTALLINE MOUTH PURITY’
Aerated/airing: Brings out the leathery/mustiness (which sounds really bad in word form but works on your tongue)
Finish
Long and lovely. That semi medicinal note turns to something more organic, herbaceous and woody. ‘cooling’ delicious. Feels like I get more out of it after the second (small) glass. And the third…
Verdict
It either evolves in the glass over 15 minutes or so, or is complex enough for me to get more from the taste over time. Maybe both. Either way is good It was quite different in character to all the other wines in the tasting
You could say that this is moving into ‘fine wine territory’ in terms of price. Is it worth the price…yeah, I suppose it is. Not one that you drink every day (seriously, cut that shit out) – but one you savour. Feels like something that i would give to a human wine basset hound or person with discerning taste.
I don’t think this taste is exactly popular, and probably wouldn’t be good for a new wine drinker or someone with a very sweet tooth (not saying that you can’t be discerning AND have a sweet tooth)
Coudoulet de Beaucastel (£16.63 – The Little Big Wine company)
Rating
Nose
A lot of rich oaky aromas but it’s not a very aromatic wine. Which is to say that it’s kinda complex but really difficult to get at. You have to really embed your nose in all those delicious aromas before you can start to differentiate them.
Palette
First thing that comes to mind is ‘refreshing’ There’s like the ‘iceberg’ flavour (mouth iceberg…mouthberg?) a huge cool ‘iciness’ that hits you initially then some herbaceousness quite soon after. I think that iciness is the tongue coating affect of the tannins but I am not entirely sure…
The tannins are balanced out by some silky herbaceous notes. I think there’s some sweetness/residual sugar here. Actually to the point where I’d say it’s kinda refreshing – like it’d hit the spot in summer. It feels like a rather complex wine that would appeal to a larger audience due to an easy drinking, sweet taste. At this price point it seems like a good idea.
Finish
Quite sharp and tannic and herbal all at once. Again, there’s a kinda medicinal combination going on here. The sweetness tails off and leaves you with the more complex and less ‘newbie friendly’ flavours.
Verdict
Pretty pricey but it feels like a wine that will please your ‘casual’ friends and your ‘connoisseur’ friends (I assume you have friends that fall into both camps and that you like to feed them wine?). A crowd pleaser but at something of a steep pricepoint. Good if you have the budget, however…