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$13.99
Pierre Luneau-Papin's estate, also known as Pierre de la Grange, is situated in the heart of Muscadet country and has been in existence since the early 18th century. His wines are Read More...
meticulously produced, from the hand-harvested old vines to his exceedingly careful cellar work. Clean, crisp wines with underlying intense minerality are the result. This is one of those rare Muscadets that will age beautifully.
$9.99
Winemaker Laurent Miquel produces this Syrah from mature, naturally low-yielding vines at his family estate high in the hills of the Languedoc, South of France. Vines are planted Read More...
in the optimum North-South (hence Nord Sud) orientation, meaning that the grapes are exposed to the gentle warmth of the morning and evening rays but protected from the burning effects of the midday sun. Laurent originally qualified as a mechanical engineer and received a masters degree in quality management from Leeds University until the passion of his father and the call of the grapes reached him. While wines from the Languedoc traditionally have been more about volume, quenching the thirst of the working class over the last century, Miquel believes, like his father before him did, that the land and terroir show potential for better, high quality wines. With bottlings like this, somehow we think others will start to share their belief.
The nose is rich, fruit-laden and earthy, with notes of black plum, cherry and tapenade leading to a layer of spice and earth and a touch of cassis-- seriously good nose. In the mouth, sweet raspberry and mixed berry fruits meld with pepper spice, minerality and a good dose of acidity, leading to a brief but enjoyable finish. Very much in balance, this one drinks great solo but will bolster many meals, from BBQ to spring lamb, roast beef to aged cheeses.
The nose is rich, fruit-laden and earthy, with notes of black plum, cherry and tapenade leading to a layer of spice and earth and a touch of cassis-- seriously good nose. In the mouth, sweet raspberry and mixed berry fruits meld with pepper spice, minerality and a good dose of acidity, leading to a brief but enjoyable finish. Very much in balance, this one drinks great solo but will bolster many meals, from BBQ to spring lamb, roast beef to aged cheeses.
$31.99
WINE ADVOCATE 92 POINTS - "The Pas de l’Escalette 2008 Les Clapas white – as usual, a blend of Carignan Blanc, Grenache Blanc, and Terret Bourret – Read More...
is possessed of striking salinity; a chalk-and-chicken stock undertone reminiscent of Chablis; and a positively shimmering sense of interactive, crystalline, stony mineral character playing against bright lemon and grapefruit, the whole tinged with bittersweet nuttiness and wreathed in musky, narcissus-like perfume. This remarkable wine shows no indication of slowing down over the next several years – although, it exhibits a faintly Jura-like sense of piquancy which the 2010 also exhibited from barrel and which some tasters may associate with oxidation."
$10.99
Cabardès is a tiny appellation between Minervois and the city of Carcassonne not far from Corbiers.Though the vines are planted on land similar to that in Minervois, the climate Read More...
here is noticeably different, being cooler with a little more rainfall. Indeed Cabardès almost qualifies as a region of the South West rather than the Languedoc and the grape varieties reflect a climate that is as much influenced by the Atlantic as by the Mediterranean. Though vines have existed at Pennautier for a long time (the château belongs to the 17th century and was designed by the creator of Versailles) quality wine is much more recent. Count Nicolas de Lorgeril, a direct descendant of the founder of Pennautier, is in charge today and has done much to change the fortunes of the estate. Château Pennautier is a large estate producing a complete range of wines and as such this vibrant, fruity red, made from cabernet, cabernet franc, merlot, cot, grenache and syrah, is very much their everyday drinking wine.
$8.95
Crisp, dry white wine with exotic aromas (white peach, jasmine, darjeeling tea) and a ripe fruity character that is typical to the vigonier grape.From the vineyards in the south Read More...
of France, close to the medieval city of Carcaassonne, where the Lorgeril family has been making at the Chateau Pennautier since 1620.Drink well chilled with salads, picnics, barbecues, or as an aperitif.
$49.99
WINE ADVOCATE 93 POINTS - "Puech-Haut’s new, all-Mourvedre bottling 2009 Coteaux du Languedoc Saint-Drezery Bosc Negre strikes me as supporting the Read More...
reasonable hypothesis that this grape is especially well-suited to an expressive performance if one’s going to let one’s fruit ascend to 15% alcohol. Plum preserves and chocolate laced with bay and brown spices make for a head-turning nose, and are joined by roasted red meat character on a sumptuous, fine-grained, yet persistently juicy palate. Whereas the corresponding Recantou and Cante Lebre bottlings tended toward the confectionary, there is a sense of freshness as well as transparency to carnal and stonily mineral elements to the rich fruit on display here. And whereas a certain superficial note of toasted oak also crept into the aforementioned bottlings, here any such impression is integrated to the point of background enhancement, and the wine finishes with sappy, energetic persistence, without any impression of heat or drying. This received more frequent racking (including rack-and-return during fermentation) than the other Puech-Haut 2009s so as to ward-off reduction and enhance textural richness, and it has worked. Cambie maintains that “at the beginning of its elevage, this was quite introverted … but then, Bandol, too, often needs a long elevage. Like Grenache, Mourvedre is less forgiving in the cellar than is Syrah, but in the end, you have a wine of more fat yet more elegance.” I can’t disagree, and it will be fascinating to follow this beauty over the next decade or so, especially in comparison with certain of the more flamboyant Bandols or Mourvedre-heavy Chateauneufs."
$49.99
WINE ADVOCATE 91 POINTS - "Puech-Haut’s 2009 Coteaux du Languedoc Saint-Drezery Quercus – named for a prominent oak tree at this spot in their vineyards, Read More...
not for oak employed in elevage – represents their exploration of pure Grenache, vinified without de-stemming. Violet and rose petal mingle with scents of strawberry and black raspberry preserves, whose sweet juices richly and caressingly coat the palate, tinged with tamarind and licorice and underlain by a saliva-inducing impression of salted roast meat pan drippings such as I would more have expected from a Syrah- or Mourvedre-dominated cuvee. What’s more, there is a faintly but insistently tart edge to the berries here that offers a sense of excitation. That said, these virtues have to work against considerable sense of alcoholic heat in an otherwise luxuriant finish, even though we’re dealing here with a grape in general notoriously welcoming of high must weights. It should be fascinating to see how this develops over the next several years, but I’m not going to try to handicap it beyond then until I see for myself."
$14.99
According to the Wine Spectator: "Forward and quite toasty, with mesquite, roasted plum and dark licorice notes laced with espresso and fruitcake hints. Ambitious, though a bit firm Read More...
and raisined on the finish. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Roussanne. Drink now."
$44.99
Lunatique is a small cuvee of only 100 cases. Rouge-Bleu has a page Lunatique from A to Z that is dedicated solely to this wine. This Vin de Table is made from 77 year-old Grenache. Read More...
The grapes are hand harvested and fermented in concrete tanks.
This wine starts off with a light nose of pure, fruit aromas. In the mouth it is round with creamy flavors. The initial fruits are cool and blue but there is massive, dreadnought power lurking behind there. There are minerals mixed in with a salty profile. The finish shows fine, grapey tannins with good coarseness.
This wine starts off with a light nose of pure, fruit aromas. In the mouth it is round with creamy flavors. The initial fruits are cool and blue but there is massive, dreadnought power lurking behind there. There are minerals mixed in with a salty profile. The finish shows fine, grapey tannins with good coarseness.
$61.99
This is Tissot’s answer to the traditional Vin de Paille (straw wine). Made from Savagnin and Poulsard grapes that are allowed to dry on straw mats for five months before pressing, Read More...
the resulting wine is an infinitely complex, concentrated nectar that defies description – intense, pure fragrance of sultanas, stone fruits, tea leaf, olives, and wildflower honey, this wine delivers bewilderingly salty/sweet, marrowy flavors that linger inconceivably long on the palate. For fans of the world’s greatest sweet wines, this will open another chapter of experience – imagine something between a great Vin Santo and a German Trockenbeerenauslese, but at a fraction of the price. Must be tasted to be believed. Extremely limited.
$12.99
The wines of Chateau Tour Gendres have the charm of wild lands, 50% Merlot and 50% Malbec, the 2010 vintage is in a garnet-red robe with purple highlights. It is expressed by Read More...
aromas of cheery, raspberry, sweet spice. The palate is crisp with a pleasant sweetness of ripe fruit, and a very nice overall balance.
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