The wines of Southern France are some of my favorites in the world. If you are bitten by the wine bug, at some point you will recount the first time you tasted a Cotes du Rhone and liked it. I'll bet it was the product of E. Guigal who is to the Rhone Valley what the Gallo family is to Sonoma Valley. The wines are easy to like. They come from the southern portion of the Rhone Valley where Grenache is the dominant grape variety. They can be fruity without tasting like jam, and add in components like mineral notes, herbs, roasted meats, olive, and licorice. It sounds strange to describe a wine that way but if you close your eyes and smell and taste, all those suggestions and more can be found. If you continue to seek out the wines from the Cotes du Rhone appellation, you may come across a label that is a little bit different. It may have the additional word Villages on it. This means simply that the wine comes from the higher designation appellation, Cotes du Rhone Villages. There are 96 villages in the broad Cotes du Rhone appellation that are deemed worthy of labeling their wines Cotes du Rhone Villages. Of those, 16 (at last count) are allowed to name the village they come from on the wine label. They are perfect wines for this time of year as they pair so well with so many of the foods we crave for comfort when the wind howls and the temperature falls.
One of my more recent discoveries is a wine we just got into the store from Philippe Cambie. Halos of Jupiter is his label under which he makes several Southern Rhone wines including a Cotes du Rhone Villages Rasteau. Rasteau is one of the villages that is permitted to include it's name on the labels of it's Cotes du Rhones... or was. When these villages feel that their wine is of sufficient quality, they may apply for an upgrade in status. The village of Rasteau did just that and in 2010 they were granted their own AOC or Appellation Originale Controllee status. You see the Cotes du Rhone Villages label on this wine because it is a 2009 vintage.
Going forward the wines from there may simply be labeled Rasteau without needing the Cotes du Rhone Villages title.
Confused?? It does take a bit to understand the system and it is far easier to drink the wine. Some of the other villages of note in the Cotes du Rhone Villages AOC are Vinsobres, Cairanne, Sablet, and Seguret. Each of these villages has their own spin on how they produce their wines and by virtue of that, their own fingerprint of style. Grenache based wines like this usually drink well young and have the ability to age as well.
I like to pair these wines with among other things, lamb. One of my favorite preparations is the traditional French method of Leg of Lamb Roasted for Seven Hours. A partially boned leg of lamb is seasoned and flavored with garlic and rosemary and slowly roasted for seven hours in a slow oven until it becomes falling apart, tender and richly flavored.
It is a commitment of time, but the results are spectacular. The gamey flavors of the lamb, garlic and herbs are complimented and heightened by the wine. If you are a Cotes du Rhone fan, it is definitely worth the trouble to seek out the village wines of the region.
No comments:
Post a Comment