Tuesday, June 20, 2006

2003 Cuvee des Messes Basses COTES DU VENTOUX (Southern Rhone, France)

Made by a large growers co-op in Ventoux, this wine is a very good buy and kind of atypical for a 2003 from this region. Sparkling dark ruby color. Gorgeous nose of freshly crushed raspberries and ripe cherries, sweet cream, and caramel. Soft, richly fruity but lively flavors of cherries, with a nice, clean mineral component. Excellent balance, freshness, and length. Tasting like it was from a much cooler, more normal year than hellish 2003, this wine is not particularly deep, serious, or complex, but it is just plain fun to drink. Very good value, since it's hard to find any wine from the Rhone region for under $10 these days. Was $9.79 at Spec's on Smith (and available at other Spec's, I think). 88.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi we are English living in France and we discovered this wine a few months ago at the supermarche.It is a very reasonably priced good quality wine .We pay 2.40 euros per bottle for it but then wine is very cheap here.Thank goodness.There are so many to chose from here and every shop has a different range so we are always on the look out for another one to add to our list of favourites and this is one of our top 5 .