Again I’m so impressed with the quality of this property and all that they do. Le Clos du Caillou continues to make very high quality wines at all levels. We were lucky enough to grab a bottle of the 07 Caillou CDR rose. Let’s just first start the conversation with the color of the wine instead of the press scores, terroir or oozing about the aroma. Looking at wine, if done often, reveals another dimension in the pleasure of consuming the world’s most fascinating beverage. You can tell if the wine will have higher than usual alcohol or sugars. You can get clues as to whether the vintage was warmer or cooler, how much extraction and time during ferment passed as well as certain vinification techniques like filtred, non filtred, etc.
Caillou’s 07 rose is an amazing light shade of red. Imagine crushing bright red rose petals into a tall glass of water and then adding a dash of orange zest. Voila, you have this vintage of spanking fresh, vibrant and joyful rose. The wine lightly grabs the sides of the glass and what legs that do form form slowly and quietly. The light shade of pink and hints of orange tell me it was a beautiful saignee with some ripe grapes, balanced and refreshing. Brilliantly clean and refractive of sunlight. It looks like the ultimate summer rose, but my wife and I say, why restrict ourselves to summer only. Roses are brilliant all year round and go with myriad of foods. If you are lucky enough to come across this wine get some and treat yourself.
Tasting note from the importer: A vibrant pink in the glass, this rosé shows raspberries, blood peaches and pink roses on the nose. Flavors are complex and densely layered, yet drink effortlessly—poached cherries blend with orange water on the palate. A blend of 40% Counoise, 35% Mourvèdre and 25% Grenache; full-bodied like a red wine, and will age well for several years.
I was tasting wines at another Chicago locals spot tonight and we opened a bottle of 2005 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf du Pape. Holy Cow! It is dellllllicious! The Vacheron family and winemaker Bruno Gaspard have some amazing vineyards and it really speaks true with this wine. I can’t believe that this wine is almost all grenache (99%). It was a silky smoothness that I don’t normally find in pure grenache ( not the normal dusty tannins and juvenile grip). Perhaps it has to do with the 100+ year old vines, or the modern wine making technique. Tasting this wine tonight shows the clean, pure and vibrant texture of brilliant CNDP. It is darker in aroma than the last time I was fortunate to taste it, with more country side floral aromas and blackberry than raspberry tones. The small amount of bottle age is treating the wine extremely well. Excellent finish and garrigue like terroir. I only wished that we’d had some duck or rabbit to go with it. Well, even if the dollar is slumping against the Euro, the price of oil continues to rise, and the value of my house is going steadily down, at least I know that there is still breathtaking wine out there.
The night before last I was sitting with a poetic bottle of syrah that makes me a believer again in the nobleness of this grape. It was bottle #278 of 3100 of 2006 Owen Roe Lady Rosa Syrah. Mr David O’Reilly really has a magic touch and it doesn’t hurt that the fruit for Lady Rosa is one of the most profound terroir vineyards of the North West, Dubrul. Hugh and Kathy Shiels spend so many diligent hours in their vineyard maintaining and improving the land, the terroir, the fruit, that high kudos has to go to them. That being said, how magical is it when you open a new world bottle of syrah and your senses are hit with wild game aromas, dark freshly ground coffee with just a dash of bitter Mexican chocolate, grilled bacon, and then the fruit. David is a master of blending vineyard and primary expressions. It’s the balance of letting the land, the terroir speak, at the same time giving us a nearly hedonistic wine that screams to be drunk. The sad but true part of the story is that on day two (I was saving the bottle to appreciate its amelioration over several days) I found that the remaining juice in the bottle had been used in a meat and pasta dish that my wife made! Suffice it to say the sauce was dramatically good, I was just wishing the whole time for another sip while we twirled spaghetti.
Since SNAFU is a red wine, California made, perhaps we should have a couple of discussions on red wine. What makes wine red? Why does it taste so different than white? Why do some people only drink red wine (or only white wine for that matter)? Can’t we have a non-discriminating wine drinking public?
Thoughts from a roaming wine drinker.
Location: Northern California
Date: Recently
Story: He looked at me. Not with shock or surprise, but with a pale certitude. Is that how fate looks you in the eyes? I always thought that destiny laid its hand upon you in anonymity. Isn’t it something that just happens? When we turn around and look up into the balcony of passed time we can review how all the pieces come together to make the quilt of the whole.
So I took a sip and the word my senses could only describe was “overwhelming.” That’s a wine epiphany. And he nodded in agreement.
