Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome again to the Mostly Weekly But Still Weekly Carpe Vinum Newsletter of Purported Reliability and the Friday Tasting of Super Reliability and Reliably-Good . . . ness . . . or something. Welcome back! Remember that time about two weeks ago when I had server problems and I said that the mail server would be better and more reliable than ever? Well, there are a few philosophies that can describe this situation: “It’s always darkest before dawn” or “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”. You can take your pick. Also, and a way around any old clichés, is the new “A technologically inept wine guy blew up the server” philosophy that’s catching on everywhere.

We’re not sure what happened but it’s got something to do with spam filters, confused servers, bouncing addresses, untied shoelaces, ones and zeroes, and so on. To make a long story short, about 80% of you didn’t get the newsletter last week. Sorry ’bout that. We’re working on it. If you get this, I guess we got it fixed. Whoo! So anyway, back to wine. This week we’re tasting the fine wines of the French Rhone! Also, considering the sweltering heat, I thought white wine might be in order. I’d never done a complete “White Rhone” tasting before, although I had featured quite a few Rhone whites in tastings past, and the results have always been spectacular and the wines tremendously popular.

So the French Rhone! If most of you are familiar with what we do here at Carpe Vinum, you know I love the Rhone wines. I can seriously say it’s my favorite region in France. The wines are robust and fun, yet they can be austere and complicated, and there are still a lot of values there to be had. Stylistically, there is a split between the North and the South Rhone, creating different regional styles. The North makes their red wines predominantly with the Syrah grape. In fact, Northern Rhone is the source from where everyone else in the world got their Syrah vines, although the style of Syrah is totally different than anywhere else. The Southern Rhone is a different story as most of their wines are based on blends of different grapes, the roster of which is very long but is dominated by Grenache Noir, Mourvedre, Cinsault, and Carignane. But that’s for the reds. This week we’re talking about the whites!

The whites of the region also tend to be spilt by the North and South Rhone. In the North the best known white grape is Viognier. We know it. We love it. And the popularity of it is ever increasing. Viognier is the grape that makes up the most prestigious (and dare I say overpriced) regions of Condrieu and Chateau Grillet and it is often blended into the red wines of the region. The other two major players in the region are the Marsanne and Rousanne. Marsanne and Rousanne almost always appear together in the region’s white wines, and also tend to be blended into the region’s reds. There is another grape, Clairette, which mostly appears in an obscure regional sparkling wine that I’ve never seen and probably doesn’t really warrant this mention.

The whites of the Southern Rhone share the same grapes with the North, including the Clairette, as well as a few more major players. In the same way as the reds, the whites tend to be blended from multiple varieties, the most important being the Viognier, Marsanne, Rousanne and Clairette, plus the powerhouse of the Southern Rhone, Grenache Blanc. What is a Grenache Blanc? In the same way Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris are related to Pinot Noir, through mutations or cloning or some botanical mojo, Grenache Blanc is related to Grenache Noir, and shares many of the same characteristics. Except it’s white. Hence the “blanc” versus the “noir”.

So there we have it! It’s the whites of the French Rhone! I’ve picked out a selection of Rhone whites giving representation throughout the region, including the quintessential Chateauneuf du Pape blanc. I took an extra-long time trying to track down the grape variety makeup of each wine here just for extra-added information. And, well, for me, fun. All except for one of these wines. It’s the first wine here, under Kermit Lynch’s personal label. I know it’s made for him by Domaine de Durban, but could not find any further information about it. So as the mystery wine, perhaps we can compare it to the others and GUESS what’s in it!

So Friday, July 13th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Rhone, Blanc!!!
Kermit Lynch 2005 Vin de Table de Vaucluse (100% Mystery)
Domaine Trignon 2005 Cotes du Rhone Blanc (50% Viognier, 50% Rousanne)
Domaine Brusset 2005 “Les Travers” Cairanne Blanc, (Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Rousanne, Marsanne, Viognier)
Domaine J.P. Lafond 2005 Lirac Blanc (60% Grenache Blanc, 20% Viognier)
Domaine des Martinelles 2005 Crozes-Hermitage Blanc (95% Marsanne, 5% Rousanne)

Rhone, Rhone, Blanc Blanc!!!
Philippe Faury 2004 Saint-Joseph Blanc (80% Marsanne, 20% Rousanne)
Domaine Paul Autard 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc (34% Grenache Blanc, 33% Clairette, 33% Rousanne)

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Wines of Washington!!!

M