WBW #19: When in Rhone…

Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday.  Before I get into my story I need to tell you that I originally was thinking this event was last Wednesday.  This will effect a couple of things with this tasting.   

"You’re not limited to white or red, but let’s focus on getting a blend, unless you find a rare varietal on it’s own, that would also make for an interesting review."

He then went on to helpfully link out to a places that explained all the Rhone varietals. 

Just after reading his post, I received my March issue of Food and Wine which featured an article on Rhone Reds under $16.  Wow!  Perfect timing. 

With my list of varietals and the article from Food and Wine I made my way to Esquin to see what I might be able to find.  I had selected a couple wines from the article that I thought looked particularly good but, alas, they were not to be found. They offered to order them for me  but since I thought I had just four days until my write-up was due I declined.  Had I known I actually had 11 days I may have put my order in.  Oh well, I had selected a couple alternates from the article and they had the Perrin Reserve and it was on sale!  Now there’s a good deal.  In talking with the folks at the shop another wine was recommended which I also purchased and will sample at a later date.  It was not a blend, simply a Syrah – Saint Cosme 2004 Cotes Du Rhone – so it fell outside my guidelines for this tasting. 

The 2003 Perrin Reserve is a combination of 60% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre, and 20% Syrah.

Now this is where my story is going to start falling apart. :-(  I brought the wine home and a day or so later I had a little tasting.  The next day I started to write-up my post from my notes.  Then I realized that I was ahead of the game, so I stopped and wrote a different post instead.  Yesterday when I started pulling together my materials for this post I realized that I’ve lost my notes!  I cleaned my office up and I have no idea where they are!  On top of that, it just happens there has been a lot of wine tasting going on in the last week or so.  Without my notes I can’t give you any specifics.  I hate that!  Especially because I liked this wine. 

It had a beautiful color – as you can see in the photo – and I remember that I liked it on its own and with whatever food I happened to choose to eat with it. I know that it was full of berry flavor and that it didn’t linger long but it left a subtle impression of those berries on your tongue. It was just a bit spicy.  I liked it because it brought back to mind all the best things about travel in France – good, inexpensive wines; food from the street markets; creating picnics on the fly.  Good taste but not heavy: a wine you could drink in the middle of the day and still have energy to go about the rest of your day. 

So, although I can’t provide too many specifics, I would still recommend this wine.  Especially since it is under $15 and, when on sale, actually about $10!  How great is that?