Tag Archives: Rhone blends

Wine of the week: Moulin de Gassac Guilhem Rouge 2020

Moulin de Gassac Guilhem
Guilhem Rouge 2020/$9-$15

The Guilhem Rouge is the perfect red wine for winter’s weeknight dinners

Perhaps the most difficult thing about writing reviews for the blog is not the actual writing, but finding wines that meet the blog’s standards. This is particularly difficult for red wine, since the wine business seems to go out of its way to make especially plonky reds for $15 or less.

Which is why I was so surprised – and dare I say delighted – to find the Guilhem Rouge 2020 ($11, purchased, 13.5%). The white and rose are top-notch cheap wines, but even some of the greatest cheap wine producers have trouble with reds.

That wasn’t the case here. This is a red Rhone blend from France (mostly syrah and grenache, with a bit of carignan), but not too soft or too jammy, as is too often the case with red wine at this price. Instead it’s dark and full of red fruit (cherries?) , but also surprisingly fresh and mostly balanced. That means there isn’t any of that syrah inkiness that can creep in the back.

In other words, the perfect red wine for dinner during the winter, be it takeout pizza or meatloaf. And that this wine, made in a less well known part of one of France’s least respected regions, can do what it does as well as it does once again points out what California can’t do — or won’t — do anymore.

Imported by Palomar Imports

Expensive wine 71: Mercer Estates Ode to Brothers Reserve 2011

Mercer Estates Ode to Brothers ReserveWashington state’s red wines can be some of the best in the world, and usually offer value regardless of price. The Mercer Estates Ode to Brothers Reserve ($34, sample, 14.9%), from one of the state’s oldest producers, is no exception.

This is a sophisticated, balanced wine with lots and lots going on, a wonderful example of what Washington state can do with red blends, and especially when the blend doesn’t have cabernet sauvignon or merlot in it. This is a Rhone-style wine, with mostly grenache and syrah and some mouvedre for effect. The grenache offers lots of juicy red fruit, while the syrah’s contribution is classic — meaty aromas and dark flavors. Best yet, the fruit doesn’t overwhelm the wine, as might happen in California.

Highly recommended, even though the alcohol becomes noticeable after a couple of glasses. Which means the Mercer Estates Ode to Brothers Reserve needs food, and almost certainly red meat.

Wine of the week: The Stump Jump 2009

image from www.darenberg.com.au

Yet another Australian wine featured on the blog? Hey, the Wine Curmudgeon calls them as he sees them, and if it means changing his mind and admitting that he doesn’t know everything that he thinks he knows, that’s what makes him the Wine Curmudgeon.

Or, to quote a wine drinker named danielbleier on CellarTracker (the blog’s unofficial wine inventory software): “This is what I am looking for in a $10 wine.”

The Stump Jump ($12, sample), is a blend of red Rhone varietals that includes grenache, and it is all of that. Since it’s Australian, there is lots and lots of red fruit (black cherry?) and it’s not shy about the fruit, either. But the wine is far from one dimensional, with a bit of a middle and even a finish and some tannins — things most cheap Aussie wines don’t bother with since they’re only concerned with making the fruit explode in your mouth. And did I mention that the alcohol is only 14 percent, which is practically nothing for an Australian wine?

One caveat: The Stump Jump, despite its relative subtlety, does need hearty, stick to your ribs food. It is still Australian, and trying to drink this by itself would be an adventure in wine tasting. I drank it with with roasted pork country-style ribs, a fine fit, and it would have paired equally as well if I had smoked the ribs.