Côtes du Rhône Wine Tasting Showdown
Written By: Anonymous on Mon, Aug 18th 2008
Brian Freedman: Welcome to the classicwines.com Côtes du Rhône Showdown; I am your host Brian Freedman. Today we will be tasting what I still think despite the weak dollar against the Euro is one of the best values coming out of Europe Côtes du Rhône. Now for wine number one, both these are very easy to find. The J. Vidal-Fleury 2006 Côtes du Rhône and wine number two is the Chateau Beauchene 2006 Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve.
So wine number one, you will see this everywhere, very, very, very widely distributed, very pretty color on there, it's sort of like a dark raspberry, and on the nose there is great spice, there is great sort of redberry fruit, blackberry fruit. This is the Grenache there is really, really strutting its stuff. This is what we look for in Southern French Grenache.
At the risk of sounding cheesy or Fromagey this is a very berry wine. The berries there are really, to me, the driving force aside from some of the Grenache spice. It's a fairly simple wine but I am enjoying this.
It has enough tannins; it has enough acid that you could certainly drink it with food, and I think it would be better with food. But honestly it's fruity enough and round enough, you could honestly really enjoy it on its own.
Now wine number two, this Chateau Beauchene, for the last couple of vintages it has really been racking up a number of accolades, really high scores from the big name critics, and I have been a big fan of the last couple, haven't tasted the 06 yet, so let's give it a shot. Now the Chateau Beauchene is significantly lighter in color than the J. Vidal-Fleury, again doesn't necessarily translate to the kinds of nuances and characteristics we are going to find on it.
Oh, yeah and on the nose, here the syrah is really showing itself. It's a little more meaty, very, very, strong characteristic of Olive Tapenade, little bit smoky. This, to me, is almost a little more quintessentially Rhone valley than the J. Vidal-Fleury.
This one is custom made for barbeque, for smoked ribs, for exactly the kinds of food that we do tend to eat when we do have cookouts or picnics this time of the year. Quite honestly they are both excellent wines. I absolutely see why the Chateau Beauchene has become such a critical darling the last couple of vintages.
So the winner of today's classicwines.com Côtes du Rhône Showdown is Chateau Beauchene 2006 Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve.
Remember both of these wines are available on classicwines.com. I am your host Brian Freedman, and until next time, cheers.
