James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

Last night was my annual jaunt to the south of Kent for a tasting with the group. Group chairman/secretary (I am never sure what the roles are), Keith Powis had been called away so there was quite a different dynamic than usual but he was missed. The tasting was very lively and the wines were well received - all showing rather well. The wines I took along (one non-Rhone but who's counting?) were: White wines Mourchon , Côtes du Rhône 2010 “La Source” DomaineTreloar , VDP Côtes Catalan 2010 “Terre Promis” (really lovely wine, coming together well) Red wines Domaine deCristia , VDP Mediterrannée 2010 (mini-Chateauneuf, excellent price) Domaine de la Charité , Côtes du Rhône 2010 (very pure CDR) Perrin , Vinsobres 2009 “Les Cornuds” Raymond Usseglio , Côtes du Rhône 2009 (mini-Chateauneuf, a real contender) Domaine Bressy-Masson , Rasteau 2009 “Paul-Emile” (just gorgeous) Domaine des Côteaux des Travers , Rasteau-CDR Villages 2007 “Prestige” (masterful) ...

Just back from Easter in the Vaucluse (a working holiday, at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it) and straight into a wine tasting for a group I haven't met before but who received me generously on Monday evening and seemed to like the wines I presented. First up was a pair of whites: Mourchon's Viognier "La Source", a wine for the summer and Coteaux des Travers' more serious and ageworthy (but not dissimilar) "Marine". Both wines have lots of Viognier and Roussanne so are highly aromatic. On the night, the Mourchon offered the easier drinking but the CDT is clearly the master here. Easing into the reds, Cristia's 2009 CDP Grenache "Vieilles Vignes" is just about there now, the wood which was, perhaps, a little too evident is beginning to give way to some sweet, fragrant fruit with a Burgundian elegance. I defy any Grenache detractor not to enjoy this wine with a summer lunch. Next, a pair of classic wines: Bressy-Mas...

An Argentinian initiative but, frankly, when you get beyond the £6 or £7 wines they do well, I think you are better off looking at Cahors. OK, so I am spoilt for choice with my relationships with Cedre, Lamartine and Haut-Monplaisir but these estates all prove that it is possible to make wines that burst with fruit (in the same way as the Argentinian wines do) but don't leave a saccharine taste in the mouth; rather, they have superb structures to go with burly meats like duck (an obvious choice given they come from the South-West), lamb (think Agneau de Quercy) and a juicy, bloody steak. Sadly, I didn't have any input into last night's meal which was chicken wings so no Malbec for me. Tonight, however, lamb shanks - not the most obvious dish for Cahors but I have to make amends somehow.

Puig Parahy is not a name that is well known but it deserves to be. Georges Puig makes some very good wines at his family's estate in the Roussillon region of southern France but what the family has long excelled at is offering mature vintages of exquisite Rivesaltes Rancio wines. When we visited the estate just before Easter 2011, we were fortunate to arrive a couple of hours after The Wine Advocate's reviewer for this region had left. That meant that not only were there bottles out for tasting meant for us but older vintages of both the table wines and the Rivesaltes. Indeed, this was the first time in my life I tasted a wine older than anyone I have ever - to the best of my knowledge - met. The youngest wine was a 2009, nowhere near ready for bottling but showing good potential. The 2005 was already displaying some of the Rancio characteristics and, skipping the odd bottle here and there (not that I did during the tasting), I found that a jump of six years seemed to brin...

I just took delivery of the 2009s from Cahors. Having tasted them twice from the barrel, I had every reason to be excited but was nonetheless a little anxious that they may not live up to expectations in the bottle. Nothing to worry about (of course). Certainly, they are all young and some of the oak from the barrel ageing needs to be shed but it is quite unobtrusive even now and will give way to the fruit (even more than it has already) in time. Put simply, this is a stunning set of wines. Pascal    Vehaeghe  is clearly pleased with his 2009s. On both of the last two occasions I visited him he was keen for me to taste these (see earlier blogs).  Chateau du Cedre is regarded as, probably, the very best estate in Cahors, certainly of those in the modern style, and Pascal is at the forefront on experimentation to make his wines better without losing their typicity. Usually these are wines to age, particularly as Pascal used to use 100% new oak. However, he has cut t...

Now, I am fairly well versed in what a Cotes du Rhone should taste like and that can (and does) cover a huge range of styles - think of all the different grapes than can go into one of these bottles for a start. However, I have certain expectations: a lighter style of Chateauneuf when I open a bottle of Coudoulet de Beaucastel or Raymond Usseglio's CDR, perhaps, or something truly elegant from Grand Veneur or ultra-modern from Domaine de Cristia. Amongst the CDR producers themselves, I expect fruit and a medium body above all else: something easy and very pleasant to quaff but not something that is going to make me stand up and shout. I have always known the Bressy-Masson 2009 CDR is cut from a rather different cloth (that's why I bought it, after all) but tasting it again last night reminded me just how different it is. Yields were very low in 2009 so Marie-France Masson decided to make only a little of the very top Rasteau cuvee, A la gloire de mon pere, and ensure there we...

Several years ago, I imported wines from Domaine Gramenon in the Southern Rhone. Among these were a few cases of Philippe Laurent's last vintage of "Pascal", a very old-vine Grenache which Parker was fond of comparing with old-vine Zinfandel. On the side of the case was a sticker imploring buyers to store the wine between 5-14 degrees as it contained absolutely no sulfur whatsoever. Last week, when I opened my last bottle of this wine, which has been in my possession for most of its 13 years (and it is only in the last few years that I have been entirely satisfied with my storage conditions at home), I inevitably had a bottle of something else in reserve. Not necessary at all. The wine was remarkably fresh and not remotely oxidised (and it was delicious but that is not really relevant to this post). So how much SO2 do we really need?