Entre Les Murs

Going Back For Red

We had a terrific dinner on Sunday night at the home of a couple of Canadians, C&T, who moved to Paris this past summer.  T is a colleague of Janet's, and C is in a similar position to me, that is, productively occupying her days while her partner works.  With the Salon des Vins continuing, she agreed to join me when I went back yesterday for a second round.

I elected (with C's obliging compliance) to focus on the Rhone Valley this time.  That is still a large area, so I had planned to focus on the Northern end because I like the sound of Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage, while allowing myself to digress into the even more lyrical Chateauneuf du Pape.  The digression grew to be a dominant route, since the area was disproportionately represented at the expo, whereas there proved to be very few vintners from Hermitage and Crozes Hermitage.  There were also more than a few of the Côtes du Rhône Villages represented, and we spent some time looking at these, not least because one pays for poetry in France, even on a wine label, and the villages are generally more affordable than the other appellations mentioned.


Once our teeth were completely blue C went home and I dove back in to make a few purchases.  Generally speaking I trust my notes made earlier rather than later, and buy the wines that appeal most at the outset of an afternoon.  So I'm a little nervous about three bottles of a wine from the Domaine du Jas that was among the very last that I tasted.  It seemed remarkably lively and complex, with little of the heavy tannins that seemed to be building up in my taste buds as we'd trawled the rows of booths.  It was organic, and too good a value to pass up.  But I suppose it's possible my judgement was not then at it's most discerning.

posted 28.11.06