I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
 
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!

• 2017 Domaine Elodie Balme Côtes du Rhône (Rhône): A bit funky, a lot peppery, and even more fruity, friendly, and crowd-pleasing. $NA B+
• 2016 Domaine Combe Juliere (Rasteau): Sexy, grippy, and with the kind of density that requires advanced physics calculations. $30 B+
• 2016 Domaine du Trapadis ‘Les Adrés’ (Rasteau): Red fruits and spices, tied together with leather straps that are still tightening. $NA B+
• 2013 Cave de Rasteau Ortas Rasteau Prestige (Rasteau): Licorice, lavender, and power, in an easy to appreciate package. $18 B
• 2017 Chateau de Trinquevedel Tavel ‘Autrement Tavel’ (Tavel): A modern take on the Tavel power structure, and one that’s dangerously easy to imbibe. $NA B+
• 2016 Youngberg Hill ‘J Block’ Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley): Apparently the “J” is short for “jubilantly spicy.” $60 A-
• 2013 Jamieson Ranch Vineyards Double Lariat Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Getting earthy; as in, roots-to-branches earthy. $40 A-
• 2017 Halter Ranch Estate Adelaida District Picpoul Blanc (Paso Robles): Underrated region, underrated grape, damned good wine. $28 B+
• 2016 Wrath Wines Ex Dolio Falanghina (Monterey): Well, that’ll teach me about formulating premature hating notions on orange wines… $29 A-
• 2013 Ferrari-Carano Cabernet Sauvignon (Alexander Valley): Nearing the end? Dunno about that; there’s a lot of leathery, perky goodness left… $34 A-

Smack up against the Dentelles de Montmirail mountain range sits Gigondas, a former ancient Roman soldier retirement home area and Southern Rhône cru that, technically, contains more woodlands than vineyards. And that’s after a killer frost in the 1960s wiped out a good portion of olive tree plantings, ushering in a shift towards more vine plantings. All in all, Gigondas is about one third the size of its more famous, direct-competitor cousin, Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Terroir here is “like a layer cake,” noted Domaine Pierre Amadieu’s Henri-Claude Amadieu when I visited on a media tour last year. “A layer cake of limestone and clay, limestone and clay…” While Grenache is the name of the game here, there are a few main differences between Châteauneuf and Gigondas, excluding the fact that Gigondas’ slightly warmer climate has a tendency to make their reds even more powerful than CdP.

The entire Gigondas AOC has a North-Northwest orientation, and it’s plantings are almost exclusively at elevation – in some cases, upwards of 500m. It’s rugged, hillside farming on soils that range from marls, to sandstone, to Miocene sand, to Cretaceous limestone rich in fossilized marine life.

The short version when it comes to Gigondas: height matters (see what I did there?). The higher elevation makes for stout reds that might be compact, but pack a big, tall punch…

I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
 
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!

• 2015 Ravenswood Winery Angeli Carignan (Sonoma County): High-toned, perfumed, and about as large-and-in-charge as Carignan can possibly get. $42 B+
• 2016 Turley Wine Cellars Hayne Vineyard Petite Sirah (Napa Valley): When the Valley puts on its best Mountain Man impersonation, & it’s a good one. $75 A-
• 2017 St. Amant Winery Alicante Bouschet (Lodi): Linear, brambly, and sporting ample florals that belie the OOMPH! your mouth is about to receive. $21 B+
• 2016 Hartford Family Winery Hartford Dina’s Vineyard Zinfandel (Russian River Valley): For all of its sexy polish, there’s no denying it’s a wild child deep at heart. $60 A-
• 2015 La Pandolfa ‘Pandolfo’ Romagna Sangiovese Superiore Riserva (Emilia-Romagna): Smokes tobacco. Also smokes oragne peel, herbs, and if it could, it would smoke mineral rocks, too. $NA B+
• 2016 La Pandolfa ‘Godenza’ (Romagna Sangiovese Predappio): Dark cherries that have a firm grip on their tobacco pipe, as well as on your gums. $NA B+
• 2016 Domaine Brusset ‘Les Travers’ (Cairanne): A hipster’s paradise of black pepper, low abv, and floral vibrancy. $17 B+
• 2017 Brotte ‘Les Eglantiers’ Rosé (Tavel): So in touch with both its masculine and feminine sides, it might as well be called Tiresias… $NA B+
• 2016 Brotte ‘La Marasque’ (Gigondas): Dark blue sexiness, about as far as the eye [tongue?] can see. $23 B+
• 2015 Brotte ‘Bouvencourt’ (Vacqueyras): Brought to you by the letter “L” – for Leathery, Lithe, Long, and Lovely. $NA B+

Well… I’m in the unenviable position of having to date myself.

Embarrassingly (not because of my age, about which I mostly don’t care, but because of my obvious lack of knowledge), I knew little about the Rasteau appellation prior to visiting it on a recent Rhône media jaunt, aside from the fact that it was the home of some bad-ass Vin doux naturel sweet wines (which were permitted under the Rasteau AOC since the 1940s). Ok, more like I knew nothing about the appellation outside of its VdN wines.

But the area has been making its dry red wines based primarily on Grenache, with Syrah and Mourvèdre playing heavy roles) under the Rasteau AOC for nearly two decades now, having been approved in 2010. That’s a long enough time that a self-professed wine pro type should have known something about it, but in the relative Rhône timeline is recent enough to force dry Rasteau producers into a market game of catch-up.

And catch up they have. Rasteau’s best producers are doing well by their appellation’s new-old identity, now exporting over 40% of their collective production. There’s a bit more soil variety in Rasteau than in much of its neighboring Rhône AOCs, to the point where its wines have enough going on to mark them as distinct.

Specifically, Rasteau reds are, as Domaine Combe Julière‘s Laurent Robert put it during my visit, “Big character” experiences. “Spicy wines; well-concentrated and powerful, but with elegance.” This was a sentiment echoed by other vintners and proprietors in the area. Réjane Pouzoulas of Domaine Wilfried had this to say when asked about Rasteau ‘s typicity: “You can have full-bodied wine, of course; but with finesse.”

“In Rasteau, you can have wine that can age,” remarked Lavau‘s Benoît Lavau. “The appellation has the potential to do whatever you want. It’s always [about] the balance between tannins and acidity.” He went on to describe their wines as “sunny and strong!” That’s an impressively consistent set of responses based on Rasteau’s new-ish identity; either that, or an equally impressive effort of coordinated marketing planning. Based on my tastings, I suspect the former…