Wines from the South ofEurope

St Benezet 2004 Costiere de Nimes c pale salmon pink n loads of raspberries, strawberries, lightly mineral (sandstone), roses p small fruits, light avidity, delicious aftertaste At 3?50 a fair buy.

I don´t drink much rosé, not even in the Midi, and tend to above all avoid the C de Provence pinkies - what we do drink comes ing eneral from the neighbour regions, or the satellites, like Baux de Provence. BAndol has some good efforts, but are way overpriced. According to 'Decanter' a new geenration of rosés from CdP are on their way - I´ll believe this when I see, and, above all, taste it. However, in the list of "good producers", I found one we had come int o contact with this summer, namely, Dom La Sauveuse. We actually bought a bottle of their red 2002, despite the apellation and came to the conclusion that we liked it c very dark purple n fruit, raspberries, black currants, blackberries, cherrries, but develops into more animal notes, and minerality - warm chalk. Hnt of pepper and cloves. p attack of acidity and robust tannines, tobacco, and good persistance. Xina immediately identified Mourvedre, while I guessed at Syrah and Cab - a phone call to the producers confirmed these varietals, and added Grenache. We were, needless to say, immensely satisfied with our own organoleptic erudition. THe price as far as I remeber was c. 7?, quite reasonable. One question one might ask is, why do they put in Cab Sauv in a Southern French cuvée? DO they not have faith in their own varietals? One reason I might accept would be the addition of acidity Cab gives, but, not seldom (doubtlessly for that very same reason) the Cab is (I believe) harvested slightly immature, giving a grbutty edge to the blend. A similar blend became our summer house red Hospice d´Auge 1998 Baux de Provence This caught our eyes because of its realtive age - in the Carrefour hypermarché, a 7 year old wine is, if not a rarity, at least not common. c brick red edges n warm, raisins and caramell, dark berries (blackberries), hint of liquorice, animal ntoes, granit or warm chalk, whiff of ripeness p acidity in the attack, and persistent. Tannines fairly dominant but pleasantly structured. Dark berries. Good persistance. I believe we have 7 or 8 bottles of this lying about in our cellar now - I have great hopes that it will develop some more. It comes across as better integrated than the CdP, which may be an effect of its greater age. Speaking of things lying about in the cellar, we recently, at long last, had the sauna heater removed from our cellar (which, obviously, used to be the sauna), giving lots of more space and galvanizing self into a long awaited re-arranging of everything down there. I made some happy finds, including the last bottle of Ch Roquette sur Mer 2000 from La Clape, in Lagnuedoc. This wine was one of those we bought after a very enthusiastic tasting just outside Copenhagen, in August 2003 - I wrote about it around Christmas that year, deploring the lid of oak wood that supressed it. c dark grenade n animal, stable, ripeness, musk, eucalyptus p animal, a little perfumed, tobbacco, gunsmoke, acidity in the aftertaste, fruit (dark plums, or prunes), tannines receding. What two years can do. Needless to say, this one, too, contains Mourvedre.

I am greatly inf avor of the development in Languedoc, being particularly pleased with the communes of La Clape and Pic St Loup, and the apellation St Chinian. I certainly hope that the worthies of CdProvence will take heed and shape up - today, an atbreastude of, "it´s pink, they´ll drink it" seems to suffocate that part of the world. The satellite apellations, however, are doing some good stuff, even in the quaffing range (where we find ur day-to-day wines). A fairly good one is Dom du Pas de l´Aigle 2001 A blend of Grenache, Cab, and Carignan. Cab again! n tobbacco, spices, a little cbuttis (and ceder wood?), a certain discrete but rustic animality (hint of bret???), a bit like chevre, but not unpleasant,; melting sugar. p acidity and tannines in the attack, tannines arer more coarse than in the Hospice d´Auge, oaky, tobbacco and spice, something a bit perfumed, fruit almost extinguished by the tannines. I think this should have been left to rest for a year or two.

My recurring thought is, still, why the Cab? Is it because of acidity? Or, is it lack of trust in the varietals of the region? Does everything have to have a hint of cbuttis and pencil wood to sell? Not that it is all bad, on the contrary - I quite like a lot of these wines (I tend to write mostly about those wines I like). I just wonder.

Cheers!

Nils Gustaf

-- Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se