Last night, Jean and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a dinner of broiled rack of lamb, served with a bottle of 1998 Cotes du Rhone VV from Dom. Des Girasols. Closer inspection of the label shows that it's made by Paul Joyet in Rasteau, leading me to hypothsize that the grapes probably lie just outside of the AOC boundary.
nose: initially, a huge whack of blackberry jam with a hint of leather thrown in, gradually turning to a mix of blackberry and cherry
palate: blackberry and kirsch cherry, with leathery undertones, finishing on a slightly astringent note.
Overall, different sense of the Grenache grape than ones gets in other parts of the S. Rhone. This showed more berry character and was more jammy (and less gamey) than a typical CdR. Very nice wine and an excellent match with the lamb. No hurry in drinking this, though it's unlikely to get much better (IMO).
Mark Lipton