Languedoc Garage Band of Flavor

One of my first posts described an excellent white wine from the Languedoc region or "Midi" of France - Moulin de Gassac's Guilhem white blend (Granche Blanc, Sasuvignon Blanc, & Clariette). Today I would love to also draw your attention to their red blend of 40% Syrah, 25% Grenache, 15% Carignan, & 20% Mourvedre.

As I have often touted, blends, especially for the red wines of the world, are absolutely the best place to land when looking for a high quality "value wine". For those newer readers, I give you my go-to similie:

Single varietial wines are like a one man band. That one guy has to play all the instraments - and more importantly play them well: drums, guitar, sing, play the cymbals with his knees. The likelihood of finding a pretty good one man band for the cheap? Good luck.  Now lets look at blends. Blends are like your everyday garage band. One guy is a solid guidarist, another plays the drums and another can actually sing pretty darn well; although each grape would just be another struggling musician alone, together they make a good, and at times, great sounding band. So, for a little cover charge, we actually get to listen to decently solid music. Bands don't need a solo star as long as everyone brings their particular talent to the stage - and so is the story with blended wines.

What notes do each grape play in this particular wine?

Syrah  - the Guitarist: Earthy round spice. It carries the melody.
Granche  -  the Lead Singer: It showcases those attributes to hear first of strawberry/cherry earthiness and notes of bay leaf
Carignan - The Back-up Singer & Guitarist: added primarily for volume & color being it grows easily (unlike the ficle Pinot Noir) is  softens the melodies of the band.
Mourvedre - The Dummer: brings the backbone of drying tannin & underlying black fruit

Together this blend plays a nose of a freshly opened bag of Crazins & bay leaf. The palate is similar to velvet: soft yet drying, with earthy components such as thyme stalks, along with dried cherries, and (for all the Special K Red Berries fans out there) the taste of dehydrated strawberries. Overall the blend is indicitive of the classic flavors achieved in the next door Southern Rhone region, but, as always, for a 1/3rd of the price at betwen only $9-12 per bottle.

A wine designed to drink with food, pair with "Provincal" foods such as sauages, dark meat chicken, and roasts such as lamb and pork sholder. The fat in these dishes will cut that inital drying tannin and allow the singer, Grenache, to really be heard.