It Starts With A Grape

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First and foremost, this wine needs to breath. Decant it, pour it a half hour before you drink it, or if you don’t have the time, pour it back and forth between two glasses a couple of times, just get some air on it.

This will reveal a bright nose of blueberries, ripe red, fresh off the vine raspberries, black pepper, and charcoal. This 100% Granacha is an almost electric hue of magenta, and even after vigorously aerating, this wine still bites (in a good way!). If you want to wake up your dormant taste buds this phenomenally robust red will do the trick! It delivers a spicy wave of flavors including cinnamon and tarragon, along with a wallop of tangy raspberry, and plenty of black pepper. If you could taste the smell of a smoldering campfire on a cool summer night, well, that’s the finish you will get from this Spanish firecracker. It makes me crave bacon and Gorgonzola atop grilled steak on a bed of sauteed spinach delicately seasoned with fresh garlic.

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Cotes Du Rhone (Coat-do-rone) is traditionally a blend made of any of the fallowing grapes: Syrah, Grenache, Mourverde, and Carignan. Its called Cotes Du Rhone because of where its grown in France, as is the case with the majority of French wines. This particular Cotes Du Rhone, Saint Esprit, is made up of 75% Syrah, and 25% Greanche. Its a beautiful deep shade of garnet, and opens with a nose of black cherry and tart plumb. Fallowed by light smokey oak and just a hint of cinnamon. With a medium body, its tannins are silky smooth, but maintain enough oomph to give it a fair amount of backbone. Flavors of juicy raspberry and an array of black fruit glide over your taste-buds, moving you gracefully into a finish of soft, smooth oak finish. This is one very well balanced red, that would lend itself well to a number of foods, or could be drunk on its own. Broiled, juicy steak in a garlic sauce with a side of herb-ed red mashed potatoes comes to mind, but it would go just as well with a mild cheese. One word of caution with this wine, I would recommend either decanting it or just giving it a while to open up in your glass, the tannins and acidity were a little much the first time around, but they calm down fairly quickly when aerated.

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My first reaction to this blend out of Spain was simply wow. It has an ultra fragrant nose, filled with spicy aromas of freshly cracked black pepper and clove, dried figs, warm oak, and just a hint of black olives. Add to that its beefy legs, and deep magenta hue, I couldn’t get the glass to my mouth fast enough. And oh what a mouthful…dried cherries, cassis, and oak dominate the palate.  Its got a pleasant bite to it, and notes of cinnamon and dark cocoa that sweep you away to its bone dry charred oak finish. Pair it with a creamy swiss for a mid day snack, or grilled spicy sausage and peppers for someting a little more substantial.