Clos d’Alzan Côtes du Rhône Villages Signargues 2011 - A decent bet under £11

Very good en primeur buy @£7

I've mentioned this wine a few times before.

The 2010 was superb value, particularly en primeur at £7-8 per bottle.

The 2011, which has just arrived at my door after a long wait, is also excellent.

Few 2011 Côtes du Rhône wines are as good as 2010, but then 2010 was one of the best years ever.

In Bordeaux they are saying it will eventually surpass even 1982.

In the Rhone I am not sure, but I loved the 2010s I had.

This 2011 was also great value at around £7-8 per bottle, also en primeur, although I had to wait a LONG time for it.

Now it's about £130 a case, and that's decent value for what you get. It has an unexpected freshness and a fruitiness, with the complexity of the region that other wines in this price bracket lack.

It's not a "light" wine by any means, but the bottle I tasted was very quaffable indeed, which you don't always think fits with Côtes du Rhône wine. They are not Bourgogne or Fleurie wines, after all. I felt I could really taste the Grenache in it. I suppose you could say it's powerful but very well balanced and accessible.

I drank it at just below room temperature, at least as first, which may have affected the palate.

FromVineYardsDirect.com where I bought it, describes it rather differently. They say: "A rich and dark Grenache blend boasting lots of blackcurrant fruit, pepper and spice. Impressive power and balance with a lingering finish".

That's not really what I've had from my one bottle, but nonetheless it's worth investigating, despite the reviewer disagreements.

At £130 a case, or just under £11 per bottle, it's a decent bet, and you'll be supporting a small vineyard too, rather than supermarket buying practices. 

Domaine de la Solitude 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape: Plummy elegance and power

Not to be drunk in solitude

"...mainly a blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre and a light note of Cinsault. These wines are full bodied, rich textured and soft at the same time able to change according to the vintage from sweet black fruits, red fruits, exotic fruits, kirsch, ripe plum mixed with spice notes, leather and smoked: a rich style with mouth finals long and heady."

So says the website for this smooth, elegant CNP.

I'm not sure I can pick all of that up from the bottle I am trying, particularly given the cold I picked up in China (some of their wines are fantastic) last week.

But for those readers who like a smoother, silkier CNP, as opposed to some of the more rustic Côtes du Rhône wines out there, this is a gem. 

Despite the fact that it's 14.5% alcohol, you really wouldn't know from tasting it, particularly once it has been open for 24 hours. 

I am finding less and less point in drinking wines within 24 hours these days. Much better, I find, to open a bottle, taste a glass, write a few notes, then let it breathe for 24 or 48 hours, and then drink the wine with food. 

This Domaine de la Solitude 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape is for you if like a big, smooth, powerful, plummy French red. My bottle was a gift, but wine-searcher.com has it for around £20 or a bit less. Worth a try.

I'm really going to miss the 2010 Rhone wines when they are gone. I'm already finding my favourite UK retailers are stocking 2011 Rhone wines now over 2010. 2011 was not as good a year as far as I can tell. Stock up on 2010's while you can, I wish I had.

Two more great value quaffing wines: Clos d'Alzan 2010 and Jean-Paul Dubost Beaujolais Villages Tracot 2011

£58 plus VAT/Duty from: FromVineyardsDirect

Here's a couple of good value quaffing cases, as mentioned in the previous post.

First up: Clos d'Alzan 2010. From terroir very very close to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, so I am told, it's bargain drinking.

My case was around £80-90 all in, from those excellent chaps and chapesses at FromVineyardsDirect.com, my favourite online retailer.

Now it's a bit more (mine was fortunately En Primeur, bought on the spur of the moment some time ago) but it's still worth it.

At £120 a case, here's where you can get it. 

That's pretty good value at under a tenner. 

I can't see how you could do better in a supermarket or via Laithwaites etc. 

As far as I can tell, the only UK outfit that competes with FromVineyardsDirect.com for value wines is the Wine Society. 

But given they are non-profit, I'm not sure how fair the comparison is.

Anyhow, here's a bit more about the Clos. It's typically big, rich, broad and full of beans. Not literally. 

It's hard to drink without food, but it's an excellent accompaniment. As are most decent wines of course.

Here below is a shot of the Tracot I also bought recently, which you could drink with just a snack.

To be exact, it's Domaine Jean-Paul Dubost Beaujolais Villages Tracot 2011.

I picked up a case, on a whim, from Berry Brothers in London recently for around £110.

Here's a review of it from the BBR website:

"Fresh, natural, mineral and quite serious with a lively spiciness under the sapid black cherry fruit. Fresh acidity and a serious mineral component help to make this an alive wine. Just delicious, and one of the best sub-£10 reds I’ve ever had. 92/100
(Jamie Goode, The Wine Anorak, 21 November 2011)"

£110 a case from BBR

I wouldn't go as far as Jamie Goode does, but it's a lovely drop, and at the price, you can't go wrong.

I drank a glass, then drew the air out of the bottle over night and then let it breathe again the next day for 30 mins.

It really opened up the second time around.

What I like about the Northern Beaujolais wines I have tried is the finish on them. I find wine that disappears in taste/length as soon as you swallow, well, just annoying.

This Jean-Paul Dubost Beaujolais Villages Tracot really lingers considering it's a Pinot Noir grape. 

I've yet to discover much of Burgundy, so I'm sure it's not alone in nearby regions. For the price, it's definitely a gem.

Domaine les Grands Bois Les Trois Soeurs Côtes du Rhône 2010

This 2010 Côtes du Rhône from the highly rated Domaine les Grand Bois is a little cracker of a wine and is less than £10 a bottle from here.

Here's what Parker says: "90 Points. ‘Outstanding. The Côtes du Rhône les Trois Soeurs offers a delicious mouthful of wine for a song. Its dense plum color is accompanied by notes of white chocolate, crushed berry fruit, earth and licorice...enormously satisfying.’ — Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate ‘It reveals a dark ruby/purple color, abundant notes of peppery sweet raspberries and cherries, medium body, excellent ripeness and plenty of provencal typicity’ — Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate" Hard to argue with that.

However for just a couple of pounds per bottle more the very similar Cairanne does compete very well. I've bought a case of each and I am just slightly leaning towards the Cairanne as my favourite.

It's ever so slightly more refined, perhaps with a little less minerality, which I usually prefer.

For less than £10 a bottle though, you can't beat the three sisters, as I believe it translates.

Best value wine at that price I have had in 2012, no doubt.

Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1999

A friend and I splashed out and shared a bottle of this recently over a fine piece of venison. Life, it ain't so bad sometimes. It's not cheap, but it is wonderful.

The Wine Cellar Insider says:

"Blackberry liqueur, minerals, blueberries, fresh herbs, pepper and smoke with a hint of coffee. This intense, full bodied, voluptuous wine is rich, thick, intense and mouth coating".

But back in 2005 it was clearly awful:

"Huge, packed and stacked but perfectly balanced. Black and red fruit, earth, gunpowder and herbs scream from the glass. Layers of fruit take over your palate. The long red fruit filled finsh is a pleasure."

Norwegian artist references aside, apparently it has either 91 or 94 Robert Parker points, which is good enough for me.

I'd still go with the 2005 description above, but what do I know? I can never taste all the things reviewers can. But it is bloody lovely, complex, bold and spicy, with that finish that keeps going. What more can one ask for?

Wine Searcher says it's around £50 a bottle, but then Fine and Rare have it for 'just' £38.

Beaucastel at the Hawksmoor, London

I don't recall the year on this bottle when we had this particular beauty the other week at the Hawksmoor restuarant in London. I believe it was the 2009.

But it goes beautifully with steak.

When you see this kind of spicy Côtes du Rhône with the word "Beaucastel" in the title, you rarely go wrong.

The Hawksmoor offers some interesting tips on wine and steak matching too.

Check them out, here.

A potential gem from Côtes du Rhône?

I've just ordered a case of this from FromVineYardsDirect.com.

It's called Domaine les Grands Bois Cuvée Maximilien Cairanne.

It LOOKS quite it could be amazing value at £11.75 a bottle.

It even claims a 92 Parker score on the retailers website.

I couldn't find the actual wine reviewed to this level on his site, when logging in as a subscriber. Some that sounded very close had scores in the 80's and 90's, so that was good enough for me to order a case.

However, I can't believe the guys who run FromVineYardsDirect.com would say it if it wasn't true. I say this having looked at their bios on the website.

I'll report back on how it tastes when I've opened a bottle later this week.