Roussillon 'French Catalonia' wine book

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07 March 2013

Provence: Château des Launes

2011 Château des Launes white (85% Rolle, 15% Ugni blanc; 13.5% alc.) - aromatic floral and lees-edged, quite intense crisp and fresh with grapefruit vs oily honeyed flavours/texture, has a bit of weight too on its long stylish finish. Approx €11.50 cellar door/on-line (see website below for world distributors).
2011 Château des Launes rosé (75 Cinsault, 25 Grenache; 13%) - delicate and zesty with attractive citrus and rose petal aromas/flavours, crisp mouth-feel with lees-y bite and texture and a little roundness on the finish too. €9.50
2008 Cuvée Thomas red (70 Syrah, 30 Cabernet Sauvignon; 13%) - smoky edges with meaty and dark fruit, firm grip vs ripe and rounded on the palate, structured 'serious' finish with concentrated solid mouth-feel vs smoky maturing fruit. €13
2008 Cuvée Spéciale red (70 Syrah, 30 Cabernet Sauvignon; 13.5%) - more pencil shaving/coconut oak on the nose, rich and solid though with grainy texture, extracted and concentrated layered with lush ripe fruit and firm tannins, then tasty savoury finish too. Again pretty serious wine although quite dear at €19.50 (that's trendy Provence for you, although it's on offer on their site for about €11.75 when I looked, as are some of the others reviewed here).


This pretty estate lies in the Côtes de Provence appellation in the spectacular Massif des Maures national park area, about 10 kilometres inland from Saint Tropez heading towards Le Luc. It was renovated and replanted by the Dielesen family in 2005, who've obviously invested heavily here with a new winery, on-site holiday accommodation and a riding school too: check out www.chateaudeslaunes.com for more on that (I pinched the photo off there by the way). I tasted their wines in London last year.

02 March 2013

Languedoc: Sainte Cécile du Parc update

"Stéphane Mouton and Christine Mouton Bertoli created this 'new' estate in 2005, which is found between Pézenas and the little village of Caux..."
With the 2009 vintage of two of their Coteaux du Languedoc reds tasting-noted: Notes d'Orphée and Sonatina both made from Syrah and old Cinsault vines... CLICK HERE to read my updated profile (originally scribbled in 2010).

Wine Education Service courses & tastings March - May

UPDATED 12/3
There are four Wine Education Service NI events scheduled in Belfast city centre over the next few weeks, tutored by RMJ:
'Essential Wine Tasting' 5 week course £125 for five sessions
Rescheduled: Tuesday evenings May 28 and June 4, 11, 18, 25. More details about this course here:
'Classic Grape Varieties' Thursday 28 March 7-9 p.m - £30
NEW! 'Wines of Southern France' Tuesday 30 April - £35
More info on above two tutored tastings HERE (scroll down a little).
One-day wine workshop £85 for the day including lunch - 'Le Tour de France' Saturday April 6. More details about this and other workshops here:
wine-education-service.co.uk/workshop
Full listing of wine tastings and courses running in Belfast to June 2013 and on-line booking are here: www.wine-education-service.co.uk/wine-tasting-belfast

And forthcoming Wine Education Service events at different venues in London, Aberdeen, Brighton and Manchester include:
Five and eight-week introductory courses; intermediate courses on France, Classic Grape Varieties and Italy; special interest courses on Burgundy and Scotch Whisky; as well as a variety of Saturday workshops and evening tutored tastings. Full details of London events are here: wine-education-service.co.uk/course-dates with links to other cities on that page.


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