This Week's Tasting
Well-Priced Hearty Wines from Southern France
January 18, 2023
This week our selection will be six moderately priced Rhone and southern French wines. Heartier wines, they are a pleasure to drink with seasonal stews and meats this winter. All are handcrafted wines from small estates.
 | Tonight - Well-Priced Hearty Wines from Southern France Wed 1/18 5:00 - 6:30pm
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Well-Priced Hearty Wines from Southern France
This week our selection will be six moderately priced Rhone and southern French wines. Heartier wines, they are a pleasure to drink with seasonal stews and meats this winter. All are handcrafted wines from small estates.
One white: Chateau Remejeanne makes a fresh and savory white from Clairette, Marsanne, and Roussanne. Its fruit and acids are nicely balanced. As evocative as honeysuckle, for which the Cuvee is named, The wine is still hearty and full.
Domaine Lafage is a very well-regarded property in Roussillon. Their Tessellae is a pure Carignan grape. The current offering balances the grape's tangy acid spice with rounded fruit. It will nicely partner lighter herbal meats. Their Bastide Rouge Miraflore is a different animal entirely. A blend of old vine Syrah and Grenache, it is hearty, rich, and full and emphasizes dark fruit with lots of body.
Brusset is a Chateauneuf du Pape estate but also owns property in Cairanne just to the north. Their Les Travers shows the same wonderful articulation as their more expensive wines. It is poised and light on its feet and peppers the palette with delicate fine tannins counterbalanced with generous fruit.
Rasteau is also Chateauneuf du Pape's near neighbor. Soumade's Prestige Cuvee comes from 50-year-old Grenache vines with spice and depth added by dollops of Mourvedre and Syrah. It is a robust wine, given strength and intensity by generous tannins.
Clusel-Roch is sought after for its organic, biodynamic Cote Roties. They also have a tiny plot of Serine, Syrah's finest clone, in a non-appellation area outside Saint Joseph. From there comes this Syrah that is far better than its simple 'French wine' label. Lean, racy, and refined; it is as good an example of pure Old-World Syrah as we have come across at the price. Very limited in quantity.
White
2021 Remejeanne Cotes du Rhone Les Chevrefeuilles; Aroma: lean, light clean, bright, fresh, clean; Mouth: fleshy rounded clean, a nice herbal quality, good richness, clean, light finish; Very Good Plus $21; Case, $17.99
Red
2019 Tessellae Carignan Vieilles Vignes; Color: vary dark black; Aroma: lifted, very bright and clean, fresh; Mouth: reserved nicely balanced, rather full, fat, earthy Carignan spice with roundness; Very Good Plus $21; Case, $17.99
2020 Brusset Cairanne Les Travers; Color: medium dark black; Aroma: bright and intense, lightly herbal, lifted and light, rather elegant; Mouth: smooth, clean, bright fine acid, nicely articulated, refined acid; Very Good - Excellent $21; Case, $17.99
2019 Lafage Bastide Rouge Miraflore; Color: very dark; Aroma: spicy deep black cherry plum, herbal, bright fresh; Mouth: fleshy full, fat, smooth textured, nice spice and vary ripe forward fruit, good fruit depth; Very Good Plus $18.99; Case, $15.99
2019 Domaine la Soumade Rasteau Cuvee Prestige; Organic, Biodynamic Aroma: heady, very dark, very dense full, vibrant, deep currant spice, earthy, nice intensity; Very Good Plus $26.99; Case, $22.99
2020 Clusel-Roch VDF Syrah Serine; Aroma: Heady, very intense, very dense, heady and mineral spicy, full, rich fruit; Mouth: Clean, tightly with fleshy fruit, firmly structured, generous fruit, long tight finish, a pure expression of Old World Syrah; Very Good - Excellent $32; Case, $27.99 limited
Hearty Southern French Case: Special two each of the above wines - $241
Or make your own, mix any twelve or more at their case prices
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: order@federalwine.com
New, Notable, Not Much of It
2020 Domaine Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee
Laurence Feraud thinks that this edition of her highly regarded Chateauneuf may be among the three best she has ever made. After tasting it twice, we agree. It is full of energy in a nice tense balance between savory fruit aromas and poised fruit. It is reserved now but promises much for short or long-term aging. We strongly recommend it. Excellent now -Outstanding with cellaring.
"I was even more impressed by the 2020 Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Reserve than the 2019. Boasting crazily complex floral scents, garrigue, raspberries, and cherries, this is one incredibly perfumed example of Pegau. Medium to full-bodied, silky, elegant, and long, this is quintessential Pegau. -J.C., Wine Advocate
$125, Special $99 Net, packed in cases of 6
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: order@federalwine.com
Please pass this on to any friends who are wine enthusiasts!
- Len Rothenberg
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downtown on orders more than $75;
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