Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It is time, once again, for your favorite and mine: The French Rhone wines! More specifically, the Southern Rhone. It’s nothing against the Northern Rhone cousins of these fine gems, as they have some superb wines up there. . .it’s just that I find that the price of French wine is directly proportional to how close they are to Burgundy. But that’s another story, and an untested theory.

So I’ll apologize to everyone for the bad puns in the last email. As a self-proclaimed Attilla the Pun, I’m rather pRHONE to making those little jokes from time to time, although it causes eye-rolls and gRHONES from the readers. But rather than dRHONE on about it, how about we just talk about the wines? Agreed? And no more puns. (And besides.. .I don’t know any other RHONE puns, without resorting to chemical compounds, and it’s hard to work that into a regular conversation. Try using “dehydrocorticosteRHONE” in a sentence.)

So I’ve never met a Southern Rhone wine I didn’t like, barring perhaps wines from the disastrous 2002 vintage. So in honor of that terrible vintage, we’re totally sidestepping it by serving up the fine wines from the 2001 and 2003 vintages, almost completely pretending that 2002 didn’t happen. And with the exception of a few houses in the Rhone (as well as Languedoc, Italy’s Piedmont, and other parts of Southern Europe) the vintage pretty-much didn’t happen. However, the first wine in the lineup, “Le Petit Vin D’Avril” actually has a bit of 2002 juice in it, but is balanced out by bits of 2001 and 2003. (Which is also what gives it the NV, or Non-Vintage designation). Also featured is one of my old favorites, the Charbonniere Vacqueyras. Tasty stuff. No puns about it.

So Friday, January 28th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Rhone-a-licious Reds!
Clos des Papes NV Le Petit Vin D’Avril
Domaine Andre Brunel 2003 Cotes Du Rhone “L’Enclos”
Domaine de L’Ameillaud 2003 Cotes du Rhone Villages Cairanne
Santa Duc 2001 Cotes du Rhone “Vielle Vignes”
Saint Cosme 2003 Cotes du Rhone “Les Deux Albion”

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Domaine de la Charbonniere 2001 Vacqueyras
Caves Granier 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape
A stellar deal at $10 for the first 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is South American Reds!

M