Today's wine rant features the well-known wines of the Southern Cote du Rhone region. There are entire encyclopedias written on wines from the various subregions within the Southern Cote du Rhone. I will only be focusing on my three favorite (and the most well known): Chatueauneuf du Pape (referred to as CdP by ballers), Gigondas and Vacqueyras (listed in decreasing order for price and prestige).
These three red wines from the Southern Rhone are known for their warm and spicy character with loads of black and red fruit and a tad bit of "poopy barnyard" old world funk. Don't let this turn you off. These grenache and syrah based wines are a great alternative to your everyday cabernet and tend to do well with gamey dishes, meats of all kinds, bbq, and heavy sauces.
Wine tasting CdP-style:
Chateauneuf du Pape is a special wine region for me. Perhaps my favorite or second favorite in France. I believe these wines (red) are very consistent in terms of their quality and delivery. The vineyards are characterized by scraggily old grenache vines which sit low to the ground and "puddingstones" or large rocks which help retain heat in the winter.
Here's a shot of the vineyards of Clos du Caillou (one of my favorites) with a view of Mt. Ventoux, the iconic symbol of Northern Provence in the background.
Most CdPs I've tasted have an outrageous silky mouthfeel. At best you can taste these wines in your mouth for up to one minute after taking a sip. This is a good thing when real fruit and other "interesting" barnyard flavors are present. Again, most of these wines are dominated by the Grenache grape (usually about 80%) followed by Syrah, Mouvedre, Cinsault and up to 9 other select grapes which are relatively obscure outside of Provence. An added bonus of the CdP: these wines can age for 10 years just as well as they can be popped and poured tomorrow. You don't find this often with Bordeaux reds.
CdP is starting to make a name for its white wines as well. Made mostly from grapes that aren't well known outside the region, these dry and crisp whites are an interesting alternative to the boring Chardonnay and Sauvingon Blanc routine. However, Rose and I discovered there is a dramatic difference between the younger unoaked and more fruit driven CdPs versus the older substantially oaked CdPs. We definitely prefer the former although people who like those butterbutt Chards from California would appreciate all that extra wood flavor in the oaked CdPs. Sadly, all the wines of the CdP are getting a bit too pricey for casual purposes.
The same thing is happening to the wines of Gigondas, just 20 minutes down the road form CdP. The Gigondas wine appellation is strictly reds and again, mostly grenache followed by syrah and mouvedre. I'm still not the greatest at telling these apart from CdP and really nice generic Cote du Rhone Village wines but I think they are slightly harsher and heavier with a little bit less finesse. The wines of Vacqueyras are very reasonably priced and, in my opinion, deliver the most bang for the buck in the Southern Rhone. Look at that badass etching on the bottle. Why can't Napa or Sonoma try this?
These wines (red) can be even spicier than CdP so if this is not your forte run back to an oaky cabernet. Vacqueyras is the next big thing in the Southern Rhone and I think these wines will suffer the same fate as CdP and Gigondas in terms of price but until then please go grab one of these guys and roast up some lamb lollipops. If you still cringe at the price then go for a nice Cote du Rhone Villages wine. Yes there really is a difference between regular Cote du Rhone and Cote du Rhone Villages with the latter usually being more interesting and concentrated for just a few dollars more.
I could go on and on about wine from Cote du Rhone here but I'm much better in person. Hope to see you all sometime soon.
Cheers,
Red
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