Chateau Ricardelle La Clape 2009, Cuvée Juliette 2009 - "Prepare the hounds"

Love the label

If you like big punchy but complex reds, there's plenty of Australian wines out there that meet that requirement, apparently. I just haven't had many of them yet. 

The key word is complex. I've found plenty of big Aussie reds, and even bigger South African ones, but I do find them a bit one dimensional. Sorry. 

I've clearly not had the right ones (although I did have some of Vergelegen's best and was not that wowed at the time) 

So I tend to stick to French reds, and the odd Southern Italian too. You just cannot beat either region for value. 

In the eponymous Wine Bar in Prague recently (here's a few photos of the place ) I discovered yet another Languedoc wine that I knew/know little about. 

This Chateau Ricardelle La Clape 2009 is a great example of a powerful, aromatic, silky yet complex modern red from this under rated region. Family owned, according to this site. 

The vineyard is very close to the sea near Narbonne in the far south of France, an area I visited last summer when I had a look at Gerard Bertrand's L'Hospitalet. 

Here's a post on that particular visit from September 2013.

The Cuvée Juliette 2009 which I tried in Prague is, according to the bar manager who knows the Chateau personally, named after the wine maker's daughter. 

The label is fantastic, good to see a Chateau with some imagination and creativity. 

The wines are very reasonably priced too. This exact wine is hard to track down but the others from Ricardelle seem to be under £15, even from BBR.

The Cuvée Juliette 2009 is a mix of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, and Mourvèdre, a blend common in this area, and is aged in French barriques for 12 months. My tasting notes are here:

Ricardelle
Huge, smooth, dark berry cassis, and chocolaty flavours, 14.5% alcohol but slips onto the palate and has a finish like rich velvety silk. Alcohol taken to its limits but balanced given the huge fruit. Has a complexity that some 'Parkerised' wines lack. A man's wine (generally speaking!), no doubt. 

Despite the high alcohol levels (unavoidable this far south it seems) it went wonderfully with the utterly superb beef bourguignon in Prague's Wine Bar (linked above and well worth a visit), and pictured below. Both wine and wine bar are well worth a visit if in Prague or Southern France.

The simply named "Wine Bar" in Prague does superb nosh

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. 

Côtes du Ventoux, 'Les Traverses', Paul Jaboulet Aîné, 2010: Balance and power from Provence

Provence Grenache/Syrah 2010

This is, quite simply, the best wine under £8 per bottle I've tried, perhaps ever.

A bold statement? Maybe. I only bought a single bottle from the UK's Wine Society for £7.50.

This wine is big, bold, smooth, rich, elegant, powerful, all the over used words we use with good wine.

The two elements that come through the most for me are the mid palate density. Explained here, and the balance.

I'd also say it has excellent finesse, which is praise indeed considering it's classed as close as you can get to a Rhone wine, which are less known for subtlety than say a Burgundy or Bordeaux wine.

Anyhow, the 2011 is available at the same price here. A must try. Yes there is a connection between price and quality in wine, but this is a great example of just what excellent value you can get if you shop around, stay away from supermarkets and experiment with organisations such as the Wine Society. You just can never beat France for value wines, it's more or less impossible. It's the same at the top end for me. It's in the £20-100 per bottle range that Italy competes, no other country can come close.

I had a 2002 Torbreck "Descendents" recently. Around £70-80 a bottle or so. Awful. All black pepper and overpowering alcohol. This wine at £7.49 a bottle, is miles better.

Chateau La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2008

They say Grenache is the most under-rated grape. Along with Carmenere, I'd have to agree.

This little beauty, Chateau La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2008, is very highly rated on various wine sites.

I can see why. I tried it this week and it's superb. A real surprise to me. It had an almost Pauillac elegance, power and smoothness, with a subtlety I usually taste more in Bordeaux wines. (Yes, the left bank mainly, I am thinking St Julien)

Berry Brothers, not known for being particularly verbose in comparison with some wine retailers, are very keen, saying it is the "Most Exciting Wine of The Vintage".

They go on to say:

"Warm, ripe, sweet red and black fruit with sun dried herbs on the nose… intoxicating and hedonistic on the palate… this really is very close to the mighty 2007 but in some ways it is more yielding, and will be ready to be quaff as the 2007 lies dormant. It’s like a Provençale perfume: a beguiling essence of where it was grown. This is an estate on the up. (Simon Staples, Fine Wine Director)

The 2008 is made up of 46% Grenache, 34% Syrah, 14% Mourvèdre, 5% Cinsualt and 1% intriguingly described as ‘divers’. The wine has a floral perfume and an elegant and beautifully balanced palate, with notes of hedgerow and gentle spice to the fore and attractive velvety tannins providing eloquent support.
(Simon Field MW, Rhône Buyer)"

I can't do the detail they can, but I can recommend it as an unusual (to me) CNP.

Chris Kissack, AKA the Wine Doctor, has a useful and readable profile of the Chateau, as usual, on his site.

He notes that they are a careful bunch, and it shows in the 2008 that I tasted:

"The fruit is harvested by hand, with careful attention to ensure each variety is picked at the appropriate time; with so many different varieties in the typical Châteauneuf vineyard, the temptation to save time, money and effort by picking all together is not inconsiderable."

It's not cheap, at somewhere between £30 and £40 a bottle, depending on duty etc. But it is a real gem.