The Northbound End of a Southbound Horse

2006 Laurent Miquel Syrah Granache - France

This vin de pays from the southern Languedoc is one of those revolutionary French wines where they actually advertise on the label what grapes they've put into the wine! Imagine that.

Using a 75/25 Syrah-Grenache blend, Laurent Miquel gets plenty of body while preserving a bold, bright fruitiness. The bouquet is of barn and herb, with just the slightest hint of horse's ass. This is in no way a knock against the wine - horsey flavors are one of my favorite bouquets.

Balancing the herb, barn, and hint of chocolate (Syrah's most signature quality), is a pleasantly rich, ripe, almost jammy note of dark fruit, like blackberry or blueberry, but hard to pin down.

For the 10-15$ price-point, Laurent Miquel puts together some very drinkable wines. But, they are by no means phenomenal. Another standout in their portfolio is the Viognier under the Nord Sud label.

Nice is Nice

This one's from just outside of Nice, in Provence:

Clos de Bernarde Tete de Cuvée 1997 - Provence

Mourvedre up front, and grenache and syrah close behind.

What's so deliciously striking about this one is that it most certainly IS a woman I met tonight at my bar. At first whiff, certainly sophisticated (and you know that's not going to go anywhere anytime soon), but still humbly elite. She's not Bordeaux (Greenwich, for these purposes: a more than slight sigh of relief there), but Darien, or even better: Westport. There is ample fruit right up front with luscious, and I mean luscious tart calvados-ed cherries. But strangely, and wonderfully right behind it and pervading is mushroom from a shit-strewn field, without any negative connotation. She is elegant and seductively graceful, but surreptitiously throws in the Waterbury for fun. It keeps her self-aware, and extremely well balanced. And at $25 or so retail, she's a steal. My guess is the metaphor will hold up to the point of the price.

I don't know, I'll find out Sunday. But I'll let you know.