Easter 2013 Offers - was £7.99 or there abouts.

With the March voucher and double 6 box disco, spend over £50 gross on your total order, and you can get this for 4 pounds or so delivered. See previous thread on 26th March.

IWC Silver - Lovely CdR villages wine. Bottled by Celliers des Dauphins, made by Thierry Walet. The 2011 vintage is the 3rd ripe vintage in a row. 14% ALC naturally. No oak detected. Those Rhone growers are having a jolly good time.

This wine is worth double what I paid. Lovely ripe Grenache, sandalwood & cinnamon, nutmeg spice (a tad too spicy for me at the mo) a very nice peppery finish to this. (Easter Hot Cross buns ) I like this wine cooler than room temp, maybe slightly cooler than 17C. Vitality, fresh and exciting grenache.

For my palate, I would not want the fruity grenache lift to subside, and spice to ascend if laying down for 2 -3 years or so. Therefore - I'm not sure, I like the balance of flavours now I think I may drink now and over the next 9 months. One to monitor, and lovely while you check how it's getting on.

Wonderful value I don't know how the UK taxes are paid at the Easter double dip price, if the producer is to receive a decent stick.

28/03/2013


The Speil:
70% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre. The vines are driven in "Gobelet" system and ageing 30-50 years old. Management of the vineyard in respect of the environment: minimal use of any chemical intervention in the form of fertilisers and then only on a strict as 'needs' basis.
History
Grown in the north of Vaucluse between Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Rasteau in the plain of Plan de Dieu. The vines are 30-50 years old, giving layers of flavour to the wine.
Regional Information
The vineyard is planted on chalky-clay soil. 2011 has been an exceptional year: an unseasonably warm spring, a spring-like summer and an ideal autumn.

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Duncan

Nice one D, I'll be opening a bottle of this tonight, looking forward to it

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Yep, Im still here.

GK, How was this for you ?

Subsequent bottles have not had such a peppery finish, but I am very happy with the fullness and depth in this vintage. Very gluggable indeed.

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Duncan

A nice Rhone, balanced and peppery, I got some banana and wood smoke on the nose, herb and dried fruit, quite a dry finish with a hint of burnt caramel- was expecting / hoping for more sweet fruit given the Grenache percentage but no so.

A decent food wine but not one I'd drink alone, as I get older and my taste matures I’m increasingly favouring sweeter / NW reds, this was too dry for me- perhaps I started on the port too young in life. However, I have no regrets at just over £4 a bottle.

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Yep, Im still here.

Banana and wood smoke - Pretty good then. Banana translates as fruit here Burnt caramel- interesting.

Just shows how one's palate receptors develop and evolve during one's lifetime. In the 70's except '75 and '76 Cheaper clarets were a lot more severe, and green when young and when mature, much more cigar box, balsa dry with an oak finish on the notable ones, - until the amazing 1982,
Rhones, such as the '78 were dryer and harder on the palate and the Cornas was pretty tannic. CNdP was not all genache fruit (80-90%) like it is now !

However, I did say
"For my palate, I would not want the fruity grenache lift to subside, and spice to ascend if laying down for 2 -3 years or so" So I got something right as an explanatory TN.

This very young Fruity rhone, on my palate, the "Vitality, fresh and exciting grenache" is enjoyable as a supping wine after evening meal, nice also with some hard cheese as well. Pretty versatile actually

Glad you found it Good value. I bet you find the next bottle a bit fruitier. I say this because I've drunk 3 bottles now, and the last one was a lot fruitier in a NW sense, yet softer, with less interesting pepper and spice to my receptors.

The Co-Op 2008 CdR bargain you finished recently was less ripe ! Or was it the 2009 vintage ? And it grew-on-you.

I'm sure (hope) other readers of Quaffers' can find, and then judge the middle road between us, and still get the general idea !

Cheers

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Duncan

I guess its all about residual sugar, there's not enough for me in this wine. It's also why I now tend to avoid French reds especially Bordeaux, too dry, too tannic, life's too short.

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Yep, Im still here.

Had a second bottle last night and enjoyed it more, either I should consult my biodynamic drinking calander more often or I just wasnt in the mood first time around. Deffo more sweet fruit last night, almost finished the bottle, have the sore head to prove it

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Yep, Im still here.

I should credit Lana Bosak, her artwork perfectly sums up further examination, with a jolly outcome.

If I do decide to revisit that current Fench wine offer at Tesco, I'll have to take another box of this.
13/04/2013

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Duncan

I googled my biodynamic drinking window, and it came-up with this:

I wouldn't put this into Room 101 per se', the author appears to be overly smug and dismissive He does however, write a damn good TN. Excellent descriptions, that I could taste off the page

GK - do you have more intuitive links for this matter ?

Like many folks, I recognise a significant increase in perception at various times, but that increase in awareness, I've credited to be relative to the state of my ego - Mind & body, almost always in that order.

However, I've not been that sucessfull in cloning, or promoting this extra sense of well being and dimension. Other like minds invited, or appearing impromptu, helps. It is pretty random. So, I'll keep an open mind, just to make sure it returns from time to time.

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Duncan

Nope, I was being flippant, and possibly a touch disparaging towards a subject I know little about.

With no immediate urge to remedy.

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Yep, Im still here.

I bought one of these in the offer and, tonight watching le Tour, got the urge to try it.
Peppery it is, and whilst by no means being what I class as 'good', it is the very first red that I have found acceptable in many a year. Indeed, I'm well into the second glass.
Reminds me of the stuff we used to buy from the barrel in 5 l petrol cans, simply identified by abv with no mention of grapes etc.
Pleased I am...yes. I have much missed my reds. Problem is that if this trend continues, it may well get a wee bit expensive !

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

Pleased I am...yes. I have much missed my reds. Problem is that if this trend continues, it may well get a wee bit expensive

A wee bit ! Classic understatement
Ya missed all the rouge deals that I've put up, and now ya wanna drink reds - Duh.
Fancy telling us now.

Hey - Petrol cans were painted metal in them days, dark green for the garden shed and dark red for the boot of a car, or an ole Essolube / Shellmex one gallon oil can !
For drinking, the French used the pale grey, opaque polythene / polyproperlene carboys which were round, had a wire handle, a conical shaped top with a heavy duty screw cap c/w softer poly washer to stop them leaking - the new fangled five litre measure. You got your 5 litres of vin de pays vino in one of them from the tank round the back of the store.
Good stuff from the cotes du marmandais, and ok from the minervois areas, I'd never had a bulk Rhone that way, nor any from Andalusia, southern Spain. Far too far to sail in a small boat.

So Ba - are you going to investigate ripe grenarche mixes (GSM) or try the noble PN next ? Are they to be oaked, lightly oaked or not ? Let us know if you continue to experiment.

I finished a bottle of Tap D'e Perbos 2010 caves de Marmandais last night - vignobles de Sud Ouest, a car boot import, quite nice stuff actually.

Here it is: http://www.cave-du-marmandais.fr/en/the-shop.html? near the bottom of the webpage and in magnum. Bottles were about 5 Euro when bought locally, offer, about 20 euro a 6 bottle box in nearby supermarche.

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Duncan

Mainly due W of Bx, in the pines and on the Atlantic coast. Was lovely, but now billions of appartments and retail outlets. Usually in wooden 'house' with no electric or gas, no running water (well).
Definitely came out of proper (100 l ??) barrels.

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

That's way south of La Rochelle, I don't know the coast there. The pines go down to the sand shore all down the cote d'Atlantique from Ile de Re'. They had 2 core (no earth) fabric covered rubber mains cable by the time we got there. Although you could hear a generator at the back of a lonely gite in the fields at night.

In the scheme of things, not that long ago

Demi muids - 125 Litres, I think ?

Any other red wines on your horizon ? Ba.

edited 20/08/2013. Demi Muids are 600 Litres

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Duncan