Domaine Grand Nicolet Les Esqueyrons Rasteau 2012 ***
My first Rasteau. while it has my beloved black berry earthy profile, it totally lacks texture, making it too sweet. Reminds me of Corbieres/Languedoc. For dessert I had an LBV port which was less sweet than this wine.
Don't know this wine but it sounds like either a fault or a sweet Rasteau, which can be a red or a VDN (vin doux naturel) red or white (doré).
Rasteau VDN is a bit portlike, very sweet, and not all that common. The rouge is a well structured wine, usually quite high alcohol, without any more sweetness in any of the southern Rhone appellations.
Knowing a little about your tastes, I guess you might like them quite a bit (I do). See if you can find a La Soumade 'Fleur de Confiance' in a good vintage, preferably with a little age on it.
-E
50E for a 2011 in Copenhagen. Hmm, thats where I can have a 50E Cornas in o ne hand and this grenache in the other and think about my bad track record with french grenache blends and how yummy the syrah is (had better luck wit h spanish grenache) :) Any cheaper alternatives that could warm me up to a flagship rasteau?
Yeah it's their top end wine, used to be around 38€ départ cave. The next one down is a 'Confiance', followed by 'Prestige', which is still very good most years. I like even the basic CdR a lot, but ymmv.
Say, can you get hold of any Faucon Doré? You might really enjoy some of their syrah, I think it's called Le Becassier (from memory).
-E
Checked more. Its not a vin doux. sugar content is not an accurate measure of how sweet its perceived. if you add 5 grams of sugar to a glass of wate r, it will be "Sweet like sugar water". if you add 10 grams to a glass of l emon juice, it will be "sour like a lemon".
Looking at res. sugar, its 7g/l, which is almost double of other wines I li ke and are kinda sweet:
Beringer knights valley cabernet 4g/l Bramasole Syrah, "below 5g/l" famiglia bianchi cabernet 3.7g/l Sequoia Grove Reserve Morisoli Cabernet 0.05g/l
Another wine that disappointed me by being expensive sugar-water is Deutz c hampagne brut. cant find the data for it, but brut is typically 7-9g/l.
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