2007 Girardet Grand Rouge

Road Trip!

My oldest son is here on Spring Break from Santa Fe for two weeks. What better way to counterbalance the warm, dry desert air and blue skies of New Mexico than a trip to the Oregon coast in March. We set out with the only clear destination being Tillamook, for cheese curds. We all love squeaky cheese curds.

After loading up on cheese curds we headed South to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company for a bottle of wine and a visit with the chickens. Granted my son is 17 and not the least interested in a petting zoo at this point in his life, but I'm a fan of chickens and wine, so he humored me. He's a good kid.

Blue Heron has an amazing selection of Oregon wines. After skipping bottle after bottle of $50.00 Pinot Noir, I discovered a 2007 Girardet Grand Rouge for a mere $12.00. The label said it was "In the tradition of the French Rhone Valley" but failed to mention what varietals were actually in the wine. No matter. I'm feeling adventurous.

Now before you go and say "Well, she should just change the name of this blog to 'Recession Rhone' I will tell you I have TWO wines that are next in line for review that aren't Rhones. One of them isn't even French. One of them is WHITE. So..just..be paitent.

This has an old world nose. Mmmm... beautiful, stinky barnyard. Got a little hazelnut and vanilla. Not a fruit forward wine- picked up some blueberry and currant on the mid-pallet. Nice structure, a bit tannic but not like I wanted to rip my face off, would be interested in seeing what this would taste like tomorrow. Except my brother-in-law finished off the bottle. Great value though, I'll keep an eye out for more of Girardet's wines.

I tried to find out the breakdown of grapes with no luck. The only thing I could find was "a blend of 14 varietals." ! ! !

Yum.

2004 Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot

When I started this blog I promised myself I would not review bulk wines. Why should I? There are so many great, value priced wines produced by smaller wineries out there, why would I waste my time on a bulk wine? I mean my God people, when I think of bulk wine I think of that scene in "Sideways" where the wine is being dumped into the tanker by a hose. That, to me, is not the wine I want to drink.

Well, I'll tell you the reasons I'm drinking this. Christmas shopping, spending way too much money on gifts that have a life expectancy of ten days, utter and complete exhaustion, wal mart, and then sending the drinking companion in to the Hood River Safeway for a bottle of wine. His pick? Columbia Crest Two Vine Merlot for a mere $5.85.

Brave choice I thought, knowing if it was undrinkable I had a bottle of the yet-to-be-released Syncline 2007 Mourvedre at home. The nose has an amazing blackberry bramble thing going on, I thought to myself it's probably the stems that were crushed along with the grapes. (The grapes were in fact de-stemed, I'm just being snarky) No matter, I pressed on (no pun intended, really). The wine is smoooth, with flavors of berry and chocolate. None of that metallic aftertaste I usually get with bulk wine. Not a very complex merlot, but definately a food friendly, drinkable wine that paired nicely with the spinach and parmesan pasta we had for dinner. We finished the bottle and debated going out to get another. However it's chilly here in the Gorge and we're in for the night. Time to break open the Mourvedre and watch "Weeds".

2006 Château de Ségriès, Lirac Rouge, Cuvée Réservée

A Few weeks ago I discovered Nirvana. Otherwise known as Mt. Tabor Fine Wines
on SE Hawthorne in Portland Oregon. One word? FRENCH. I was surrounded by Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Rhônes. Heaven.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a lone bottle, the 2006 Château de Ségriès, Lirac Rouge, Cuvée Réservée for..wait for it. $13.99!

I have a particular fondness for Rhône Wines. Deep, hedonistic, spicy...like attracts like I suppose. I quickly made it over and claimed it as my own.

We opened the bottle that night. 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 5% Mourvèdre, 5% Carignan. Dark and rich, with flavors of cracked black pepper and black cherry. Long finish and soft tannins, a fantastic wine at a price I could almost afford.

My drinking companion and I got in a spat that evening so he protested everything, well, me. Including the wine. "Sucks to be you" I thought as I polished off the bottle.