First time I buy a cheap french wine in a supermarket in many years paid of f. I was shopping and saw this one for 16E, and I felt adventurous. Haut Me doc/Paulliac are my favourite french regions, so there was a chance I'd lik e it, while I didnt expect much since I never had one in a supermarket that was good. It was a dark fruity with mineral, but very smooth, lacking some texture (that could have given it 4 stars). Not as acidic and thin as fren ch wine often is.
I am glad to hear it is still a reliable supermarket wine: many years ago when I had regular trips to/from Brussels from London (and you could still bring back an arm full of bottles), this was a standby from the supermarket near the North station
Michael Nielsen wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
Pauillac, you mean ;)
are my favourite french regions, so
But was it 2007 or 2009? Very (very) different vintages. 2007 is a very weak vintage, with plenty of diluted wines, and if you dislike french wines for being "thin and acidic" this is the kind of Bordeaux vintage to avoid.
2009, on the other hand is an exhuberant, very ripe vintage for Bordeaux, specially on the right bank. Saint-Emilion 2009 is not thin and acidic, you can take that for granted. Try Sansonnet 2009 and tell me if you think this is thin
For what is worth, considering french wine as thin and acidic is quite unfair, since France is quite a large country with a high diversity of terroirs. You cannot compare a red from Anjou and one from Languedoc- Roussillon.
If you like riper reds, I think you should concentrate on Saint Emilion in Bordeaux, and then the wines closer to the Mediterranean Sea: Languedoc Roussillon, Rhone Sud, Provence...
A hint: Domaine de la Janasse Vin de Pays de la Principaut? d'Orange "Terre de Bussiere". A wine of 12 euros that tastes as a wine of 25 euros. And it is clearly ripe (which is the style of Janasse). If you find Janasse thin and acidic, then clearly french wine is not for you.
It is actually 2007. Seems this winemaker held the fort during this vintage .
Not familiar with those. I know a Côtes de Castillon 20E chat. de gaspard e prestige I like, as it has the right notes, but still a bit thin, hahah, but then I tried other wines from that region and they were not good.
I've had some saint emilions before. Also some fancy primier cru that the s tore was so proud of. Horrible. Thin and acidic,yes. its how I got that ide a that thats how french wine is, together with burgundy. Rhone is different .
I think it is mostly nothern rhone I like. Syrah driven. cotes du rhone and du pape is not my thing. Or is north/south vice versa? I used to like cote s du rhone, but my taste changed a bit. I can still find some I like, but i t is probably one bottle per 2 years I get. Never was satisfied with a chat . du pape (that's the kind of 40E wine I regret buying - Im much more satis fied with a 100E napa rutherford cab (price in california) or a 100E supert uscan (price in italy). I havent tasted a 100E du pape, so maybe Id like th at, but Im not going to risk that unless I have a chance to taste one so I know I would like it).
its 10E here, reviews are happy about it. they do mention a funny thing in the notes: "ox blood". LAst time I was in my fav. wine store, we were talki ng about my taste and that I think french wine has a tendency to taste like veal blood (and more acid and thinner than Im used to in my fav. wines). H e also noted that the bourdeuax wines I prefer have more cabernet then merl ot, and those I dont like have more merlot.
and behold, speaking of saint emilion: "the primary grape varieties used ar e the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with relatively small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon also being used by some châteaux."
Michael Nielsen wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
In Saint Emilion the base AOC is Saint Emilion Grand Cru. That's mostly plonk (with exceptions to be found).
Upper level is Saint Emilion Grand Cru Class?. This is better.
Then you have Premier Grand Cru Class? A and B. Only a handful. All of them ultra-uber-premium.
Over simplicating: Northern Rhone = Syrah (Cornas, Saint Joseph...) Souther Rhone = Grenache and others. (Chateaneauf du Pape...)
Cotes du Rhone is too big of an AOC and wines can come from everywhere in the Rhone. Try to find producers making Cotes du Rhone mostly with Syrah and not with Grenache in the blend.
If you do not like Merlot, avoid the Janasse Terre de Bussiere, since there is quite a proportion of Merlot in the blend.
LAst time I was in my fav. wine store,
Which is interesting because in Bordeaux, wines made primarily with Cabernet Sauvignon are thinner and more acid than the average Merlot wines and you are supposed to prefer bolder wines.
My guess is that you just love Syrah and Cabernet wines, which can make sense if you grew your appreciation for red wines in California (Napa, etc).
You should concentrate on wines from those grapes.
There were good wines made in 07, just a lot more difficult that 09. And of course it would not be possible to make a wine of the 09 standard in
Anyway LT is a modern styled wine that I find reliable and OK at the price (which is certainly not cheap!)
As Santiago says, France has many different wine regions and the character of them, like the grapes used, is very different. FWIW Cotes de Castillon is also made often mostly from Merlot, though both Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon are also authorized as principle grapes. (The secondary varieties are Carmenere, cot and petit verdot for reds). The one you like may have more cabernet sauvignon, but most of the time these wines are built to be lesser cousins to St. Emilion. BTW 20 EU is quite expensive for a castillon.
Since you don't like merlot, don't waste your money on St. Emilion. More for the rest of us! ;)
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A lot of wine from the southern Rhone is made to drink quickly and doesn't have much of the tannins that you like. Oddly where you might find success is in some of the IGP (used to be VDQS or vin de pays). For example the "Principauté d'Orange" is sometimes grown on similar or identical land where Chateauneuf du Pape is made, (though it can come from much further north also) and made from high percentages of ripe, tannic syrah. But since there are many more varieties authorized than in an AOP wine, you have to step a little carefully if your tastes are narrowly defined.
Another area that might interest you is the south west, Madiran or some Cahors that are built with a huge amount of tannins (from the Tannat grape, you can guess how it got its name).
I checked and it is actually merlot. So its an oddball castillon I guess. A S I mentioned, after liking it, I checked out more castillon to no luck, co ncluded that its just that particular wine I like. gasparde makes a "little brother" at 12E and its very thin and acidic (below my threshold for consi dering a wine to be real wine.).
This one, check it out if you can find it:
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When first opening it, it tastes quite cheap (thin and acidic, almost spark ly soda pop like) but after airing, texture, earthiness and dark disovled b erry as I like it comes out.
Well its the big brother edition.
Ive had one madiran before that I found on sale for 16E down from 22E. I li ked it. Dont remember which one and its not available anymore. was a kinda small and simple label.
I've had a cahors tasting at my wine club where they had a lot of prince of denmark wines that were all horrible. 70E wine vinegar. Their was a malbec called the "the real malbec" that was the best one at the tasting and it w as only 12E. The guy who made hte tasting was not pleased with my review so he convinced me to try another producer from cahors, as he knows my taste is very particular, Rigal:
Ive had Grand Cru, Grand Cru Classe as well as Primier Grand Cru (dont reme mber if it was A or B). None of them is something I'd like to buy. Granted, it might have been too young. But I've had current release Pingus and Chat . Latour (both being 800E per bottle)(But that cab driven pauillac) that ev en being young was amazing. I did evaluate Flor de Pingus to be the best va lue at that tasting at 100E per bottle. I think I never bought anything mor e expensive than 120E per bottle, and I doubt I ever will.
Grenache is on my "cheap " list. when getting sub-10E wines, grenache can b e fine. Along with Zinfandel and Malbec, and Valdepenas Gran Reserva ( I go t one today Diego G.R. for 6E!). I think its just that I dont think all typ es of wine benefit as much from being made more premium as other types. I t hink cabs grow with the price range. Zinfandel doesnt really improve much t hrough the price ranges in my opinion.
And as Ive been saying, most of it is really too thin and acidic :)
But cab-driven blends can be made to be bold, rough textured and earthy as I like it.
The wines that got me into wine loving was classic rioja Gran reserva (was a tasting with Martinez Bujanda Crianza, Reserva, and G.R.- unlucky for me it was G.R. that opened my eyes to what wine can really e. Crianza was "meh ", Reserva had some of the right stuff, but was too thin, G.R. was just rig ht) :)
Michael Nielsen wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
In Madiran there are two very interesting names that I have drank with delight: Domaine Berthomieu, specially in the Cuv?e Charles de Batz, and Chateau Montus.
I tasted Montus 2009 at a recent tasting and loved it. Showed up in Vente ? la Propriet? a few weeks later and got a case. It is built for the long term, and priced below 20 euro.
I even got a bottle of the 2004 at a local merchant around the corner. Not as good as the 2009 but also at 20 euro a very good drink, with plenty of tannin and the dusty character you seem to like.
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