2006 Espoir Côtes du Roussillon Villages
Domaine de la Balmière, Latour de France.
Attractive maturing style: quite smoky, rustic-edged even, although has enticing dried black fruit profile and peppery vs 'sweet/savoury' finish; still fairly solid yet rounded tannins, drinking well now. Probably a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan and Grenache. About €6.
More Balmière wines and a few words here.
2006 Espoir Côtes du Roussillon Villages - Domaine de la Balmière, Latour de France.
Attractive maturing style: quite smoky, rustic-edged even, although has enticing dried black fruit profile and peppery vs "sweet/savoury" finish; still fairly solid yet rounded tannins, drinking well now. Probably a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan and Grenache. About €6.
With Beaujolais Nouveau 2010 lurking ominously around the corner, and after recently reading some blatantly one-sided pro-wine business propaganda telling everyone to go out and buy a new "primeur wine" (French websites / magazines Terre des Vins and Vitisphere, just to get myself threatened with legal action...); I thought it might be worth asking if anyone else has found some of these wines virtually undrinkable? Admittedly, some are nice enough, such as the 2010 Colombelle white I tried recently by Producteurs Plaimont in Gascony: in a mega aromatic boiled-sweet bubble-gummy estery zingy zesty crisp fruity kind of way (although, at €4 to €4.50 in France, not exactly a bargain). But most of these autumn "new wines" I've tasted over the years just taste like a winemaking / chemistry experiment and don't come together at all like, well, wine. Unless you left them for six months, so what's the point?! Well, great cash flow for the producer for a start... sold and banked before Christmas of the same year. OK, so maybe I'll buy one red and one rosé primeur/nouveau 2010 vintage to substantiate my rantings. Watch this space, if I can be bothered...
With Beaujolais Nouveau 2010 lurking ominously around the corner, and after recently reading some blatantly one-sided pro-wine business propaganda telling everyone to go out and buy a new "primeur wine" (French websites / magazines Terre des Vins and Vitisphere, just to get myself threatened with legal action...); I thought it might be worth asking if anyone else has found some of these wines virtually undrinkable? Admittedly, some are nice enough, such as the 2010 Colombelle white I tried recently by Producteurs Plaimont in Gascony: in a mega aromatic boiled-sweet bubble-gummy estery zingy zesty crisp fruity kind of way (although, at €4 to €4.50 in France, not exactly a bargain). But most of these autumn "new wines" I've tasted over the years just taste like a winemaking / chemistry experiment and don't come together at all like, well, wine. Unless you left them for six months, so what's the point?! Well, great cash flow for the producer for a start... sold and banked before Christmas of the same year. OK, so maybe I'll buy one red and one rosé primeur/nouveau 2010 vintage to substantiate my rantings. Watch this space, if I can be bothered...
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Header image: Château de Flandry, Limoux, Languedoc. Background: Vineyard near Terrats in Les Aspres, Roussillon.