Sitting down to dinner this week after returning from a family vacation, I wanted a nice bottle of wine. What did I reach for? The Domaine Rouge-Bleu "Dentelle" rosé. As it happens, the wine I reached for the next night was the Domaine Rouge-Bleu "Mistral" Côtes du Rhône.
Tom and I had the pleasure of meeting Rouge-Bleu winemaker Jean-Marc Espinasse (see photo below) while traveling & tasting in the Rhone Valley a few months ago with importer Steve Gaucher. Steve's wife Ellen is an avid reader of the blog at www.french-word-a-day.typepad.com. The blog is written by Jean-Marc's American wife Kristin, who chronicles her experiences living with French culture & language. Ellen and Kristin had e-mailed before our French trip, which led to an invitation to Jean-Marc & Kristin's small 400-year old farm.
Knowing nothing about the winery, I did not have high expectations going into the meeting. We already have a very strong selection of fine French wines on our shelves, and our week's tasting had added a couple of new wines to our fold already.
At the farm, Jean-Marc & Kristin greeted us warmly and handed us each a glass of the rosé. I took a sip and immediately started paying better attention as Jean-Marc spoke of his personal history and winemaking philosophy.
The Rouge-Bleu rosé is the opposite of, and the antidote for, brashy, overdone, superalcoholic fruit bombs. This is, in fact, exactly what I want from a summertime rosé. It's light and elegant. Instead of calling attention to itself, it manages to highlight the good qualities of whatever food it accompanies.
The "Mistral" Côtes du Rhône, which we tasted while lunching on pizza at a local bistro, is likewise a distinctive wine that speaks both of the place where it was grown and the care with which it was made. Made mostly with 75-year-old Grenache, blended with Syrah, Mourvedre, and interestingly, 2% Roussanne, the wine has complex notes of dark berry, earth and spice, with lovely aromatics boosted by the touch of white grapes in the mix.
Jean-Marc has been in the wine exporting business for years, and only recently purchased this farm. This is a true hands-on, garagiste winemaking operation. Most of the vines are quite old, and Jean-Marc is committed to farming organically.
Toward the end of lunch, Jean-Marc pulled out a bottle of Dom. du Banneret Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a small property owned and farmed by his uncle. The wine was, in short, a revelation. I have had far more expensive Châteauneuf, but never better. It's an old-school styled wine that will age effortlessly for a decade, yet is utterly delicious today.
I am thrilled to have these three wines on our shelves. Wines of this caliber do not happen by accident. This is one reason why I enjoy working in the wine business: encountering people of character making wines of quality. Do yourself a favor and give them a try. But don't dawdle. We got only a small quantity of the Banneret, and the rosé will sell out within a week or two.