Delas Côtes du Rhône
France
2009
At our fav local spot on Saturday at Pairings Bistro (kudos for always going out of their way to make me a delish Vegan dish), a group next to us were enjoying a bottle of Delas Côtes du Rhône. My husband saw it being poured and immediately ordered one for us ranting about how wonderful it is. I just hate when husbands are right, especially mine because it happens too often.
There is no wonder why Robert Parker (the Yoda of wine from Maryland) gave it 90 points and it retails for around $15 (in stores, not in restaurants, don't want to give you menu shock). I love Cotes du Rhone's! Chapoutier Belleruche is one of my favs, but Delas is up to par! [Wine Quickie: French wine is labeled very different than a typical California wine. For a very quick look into the large depth of French wine: The more you study French wine, the more you will notice French law reflects the wine and they are named by vineyard locations. Bordeaux, Burgundy... all regions. In simplest terms, Cotes du Rhone is a wide Appellation of the very popular Rhone Valley. More info click here.]
Anywho, if you like a drier, medium bodied, red wine, give this little madamoiselle a whirl. It is just heavy enough to wrap around your palette, but not too heavy that it wears out its welcome. The notes of raspberry and pepper keep evolving in the glass [opens up more and more it hits the air]. It is 70% syrah, 20% Grenache and the last 10% a blend of Carignan and Mourvedre. The alcohol is not too high at 13.5% and makes this wine delicious with no heat on the buds. The bottle went down ever-so quickly and left room for hubby's glass of port and my glass of dessert wine. I would let it air for about 10 minutes or so before trying a sip.
Merci
