The Cuvee de L’Elegance is full of tropical fruit flavors, citrus peel, and hints of toasted almonds.  There is an enchanting floral quality and a zing of acidity that is all rounded out with lots of toasty oak.  Sustainably grown, hand-picked and produced with care, this beautifully textured white comes from old vines. It is both sleek and voluptuous and would be lovely paired with chicken picatta or bacon-wrapped scallops.

Lemenicier Cuvee de l’Elegance 2006, $23.95

So you hear all the hype, but it’s really just a tease because you don’t want to drop the big coin? Or maybe you picked up a few bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape to cellar, but you’re itching to pull the cork on some ‘07 Rhône? What’s an average Jane to do? Well, if you’re in on this little secret, you get to follow the wine insiders to the trough of exceptional value. Drink it in… deeply. You won’t regret picking up a few bottles (or even a case – while our meager supplies last) of the Domaine Gallety Côtes du Vivarais.

This wine is from the northern-most appellation in the Southern Rhône is going to put Vivarais on the wine geek’s map. It has all the intensity, all the virtuous beauty and balance of really good Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but it clocks in at less than a third of the price! If you’re drinking this wine now, or laying it down in your cellar, you’re ahead of the curve – in five or six years, Vivarais is going to be the new Chateauneuf, and you’ll remember when it was our little secret.

The wine is bright and beautiful right out of the bottle.  It’s got a gripping nose of lavender, black cherry, anise, tobacco and freshly tilled earth. The mouth is plush, velvety sleek, and deeply layered with truckloads of red and black fruit, blueberry pie, smoke and earth. And the balance – whew, it is incredible. I think this is the real character of the vintage. Everything is bigger – but it’s proportional. Somehow, those grapes fattened up nicely and didn’t lose any of their mouthwatering acidity or grippy tannins.

With just a few minutes of decanting you can pop one of these open now. If you’ve got the discipline, cellar a bottle or six – in 4 years, you’ll be very, very happy.

Domaine Gallety Côtes du Vivarais, 2007 – $23.00

Cairanne is a village in the Vaucluse region — just north of the Mediterranean coast.   It is a place of formidable independence.  During the middle ages, Cairanne was a walled enclave of the Knights Templar.  Petrarch, the 14th century poet who is strongly associated with the humanist origins of the Italian Renaissance, lived and worked nearby in Avignon.  During World War II, members of the resistance formed the Vaucluse Republic.   These are people who know their own minds.

From such a place, we get the southern Rhône wines of Cairanne, Gigondas, and some 20 other villages.  The better wines, including Domaine Catherine Le Gœuil,  are listed within the AOC Côtes du Rhône Villages.  Mme Le Gœuil is a leader in the movement for biodynamic wines from small producers.  Her wine is a lovely example of the art.

Tuta 12/13/09

Available at the shop for $16.75

First, the color is softer.  It is more dawn than sunset.  The taste is clementine and small strawberries.  This wine is a little riper than many of the Grenache rosés.  The touch of the acid is light, and it is buffered with fruit and wood.  At the end, the taste resolves into a moment of warm vanilla.  Very briefly, like a memory of oak.  If you look back, it’s gone.

Gigondas is famous for its large-scale herbaceous reds.  The rosé has a little of that sauvage style, but it is very restrained.  This is a wine to be drunk in the middle of the day.  You could keep your tie on.  You might do something useful later.

This small revelation is at Dedalus for $18.95

Tuta 6/16/09

The northern Rhône produces the world’s finest expression of the syrah grape.  The famous districts include Côte-Rôtie (the “burnt or roasted hillside”), St.-Joseph, and Hermitage.  These wines will put a dent in an AIG bonus.  But there is good news: just west of the Rhône river, the region known as Collines Rhodaniennes also produces marvelous syrah.  Because it is labeled ‘vin de pays’ (local wine), you can drink it without imposing debt on your grandchildren.

Yves Cuilleron Syrah 2007 Les Candives is a beautiful example.  Mmr. Cuilleron makes very grand red wines in Côte-Rôtie.  He also has vineyards close by in the granite hills of Collines Rhodaniennes.  “Candives” is the local name for the syrah grape.  This wine is restrained and smooth.   It tastes of violets and a dark night.  Eight months spent in oak barriques (casks) give it some weight and a warmly romantic quality.   It is meant to be drunk young.

Like many wines with a floral quality, Les Candives will go best with a little blue cheese for bite.  Dedalus offers this completely charming wine for $26.95.

Tuta 3/16/09

Jacques Lemenicier is like a ghost in the Rhône. Google the name and you’ll find countless references to his wines, and a few links to the prominent commissions he holds and boards that he belongs to (a testament to his reputation) and even an article or two referring to the French Baroque artist and engineer of the same name who may – or may not – be a relative. What you probably won’t find is a website for the domaine, any marketing hype about his wines, or a personality-construct designed to support his “brand”. Nope, Jacques’ comings and goings in the Rhone are known to a very few only as a result of the totally distinct, delicious wines he bottles. Perhaps the least well-known of which is his Saint-Péray, aptly named Cuvée Elégance.

This blend of mostly Marsanne with a bit of Rousanne is an intense stunner of a wine. The nose is like a banana smashed against some concrete and mixed up with a bit of gravel and lime. On the palette, the wine is viscous and juicy. I was left with the impression of wet stones and velvet, a hint of cedar and caramel from what seems to be the very judicious use of oak, and a long, lingering, spicy finish. With food, a nice peice of grilled skate with capers and sauced with a gastrique or burre-blanc, this would be a revelation. On its own the wine remains powerful. Particularly if you’ve only heard wine geeks refer to minerality and haven’t yet experienced it on your own. A few years in the cellar will pay some dividends with this wine.

Jacques Lemenicier Saint-Péray, 2006 Cuvée Elégance – $23.95

The Rhône, perhaps the home of France’s oldest vineyards, is divided into two regions – the northern Rhône and the southern Rhône. The river, the grapes and the people unite the two regions but each, along with the many appellations they contain, produces distinct wines built for the table, the cellar, and the glass.

Grape growing in the Rhône is an arduous physical and spiritual sacrifice. Many of the Vineyards are carved into the treacherous mountains that descend dramatically, down towards the banks of the the Rhône river. Here, machine harvesting is impossible, and the small terraces that create a visual topography of the mountains are so narrow and so steeply perched that hand harvesting is a backbreaking task undertaken by leather-skinned pickers, constantly assaulted by the weather and quite literally living on the edge. The vineyards of the southern Rhône’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation are strewn with bright white grapefruit-sized rocks; gnarly old vines pushing through a stone blanket like ancient sentinels struggling for a glimpse at the sun.  People and vine struggle together in the Rhône. It’s a labor that yields incredible beauty. The combination of 13 grape varieties and over 15 distinct appellations gives winemakers an expressionist’s palette to work with. These are spicy and chewy food-loving wines. They run the range from light, bright and gentle to dark, brooding and powerful. These are wines everybody should know.

The Rhône, perhaps the home of France’s oldest vineyards, is divided into two regions – the northern Rhône and the southern Rhône. The river, the grapes and the people unite the two regions but each, along with the many appellations they contain, produces distinct wines built for the table, the cellar, and the glass. In this two class series, we’ll start by tasting and discussing the wines of the southern Rhône. Our first class will feature:

Paul Jeune Château Valcombe Côtes du Ventoux, 2004 ($12/bottle)
Château de Ségriès Côtes du Rhône, 2005 ($11.75/bottle)
Domaine Les Pallières Gigondas, 2005 ($32.25/bottle)
Télégramme Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2005 ($36.25/bottle)

Sunday, January 11th

3:00 – 4:30

$35/Person

Call or e-mail for reservations

Grape growing in the Rhône is an arduous physical and spiritual sacrifice. Many of the Vineyards are carved into the treacherous mountains that descend dramatically, down towards the banks of the the Rhône river. Here, machine harvesting is impossible, and the small terraces that create a visual topography of the mountains are so narrow and so steeply perched that hand harvesting is a backbreaking task undertaken by leather-skinned pickers, constantly assaulted by the weather and quite literally living on the edge. The vineyards of the southern Rhône’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation are strewn with bright white grapefruit-sized rocks; gnarly old vines pushing through a stone blanket like ancient sentinels struggling for a glimpse at the sun. People and vine struggle together in the Rhône. It’s a labor that yields incredible beauty. The combination of 13 grape varieties and over 15 distinct appellations gives winemakers an expressionist’s palette to work with. These are spicy and chewy food-loving wines. They run the range from light, bright and gentle to dark, brooding and powerful. These are wines everybody should know.

The Rhône, perhaps the home of France’s oldest vineyards, is divided into two regions – the northern Rhône and the southern Rhône. The river, the grapes and the people unite the two regions but each, along with the many appellations they contain, produces distinct wines built for the table, the cellar, and the glass. In this second class our two-class series, we’ll start by tasting and discussing the legendary wines of the northern Rhône.

Sunday, February 22nd

3:00 – 4:30

$35/Person

Call or e-mail for reservations

We’re like the wine equivalent of the truffle pig. We snuffle around wine portfolios and big trade tastings hunting for the rarest of the rare: everyday drinking-wines that are anything but “everyday”. The ’06 Ségriès Côtes-du-Rhône is anything but mundane. It’s easy drinking, chock-full-o’ juicy red fruit – red cherry, cranberry, mostly -  and equipped with a cool, perfumed nose. Serve it with anything you grill, roast or braise. Or better yet, just pop open a bottle and pour yourself a glass.

Château de Ségriès Côtes-du-Rhône, 2006

$11.75