Wine Review of 2015 Alain Jaume Grande Garrigue Vacqueyras, Rhône, France
Score: 89+/100
The Vacqueyras appellation is located right next to the Gigondas AOC, and not far from Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Rhone Valley wine region of France.
It mostly stretches on Sarrians territory, where is the famous plateau named “Les Garrigues”. This area is made of clay and rocks and features beautiful landscape of garrigue typical of the Mediterranean coast, a rugged dry landscape filled with aromatic herbs.
The Grande Garrique cuvée by Alain Jaume is a blend of Grenache noir, Syrah, old Cinsault, and Mourvèdre aged in concrete tanks and 3-year-old oak barrels for about 14 months.
Overall Review Notes & Tasting Impressions
This Rhone red comes in a bright red color of medium intensity, quite dense, but not overly so for a Vacqueyras.
The is fruity filled with red berry aromas, of the vibrant and fresh type, raspberry and redberry. More importantly, it’s remarkably spicy featuring shiny white pepper tones that lift the aromatic profile greatly.
The palate is dry and quite round and soft at first, giving an overall impression of smoothness. The moderately dense tannins though, gain in granulosity from the mid-palate on to eventually give a slightly drying texture to the finish.
Powerful flavors of pepper and mixed red berries, make for an enjoyable, fruit-driven, slightly earthy red with a dominant fruity generosity, combined with a dry and acidic feel, minty and grassy, somewhat like basil leaf.
This should work wonders on grilled meats, barbecue, and rich roasted meat dishes.
Enjoy 🙂
Please let me know your thoughts