Region: Costieres de Nimes, Languedoc, France
Composition: About half Grenache, half Syrah (I couldn't find any numbers, but the 2000 was 44 percent Grenache, 56 percent Syrah)
Background: The Languedoc is one of those regions you always hear about as being up-and-coming, and it is a great area to investigate if you are looking for interesting wines that are not very expensive. It is also the largest winegrowing region in the world, with almost 740,000 acres of vines (compare Bordeaux, which has about 280,000 acres) and used to be largely planted with table-quality grapes which produced not very good table wines. But in the last few years/decades, the area has been replanted with better vines, and a lot of the growers are trying to make fine wine. Chateau Grande Cassagne is one such example. In the 1980's Benoît and Laurent Dardé took over their family estate, ripped out and replanted the vineyards, and now bottle all of their wine at the domaine. They've even installed a temperature-controlled winery and cellar, and seem to be very serious about their winemaking.
The estate itself is located a little bit south of Nimes, in the very south of France (somewhat to the west of Marseille), in the Eastern Languedoc. This region is south of the Rhone and the producers often grow Rhone varietals, focusing on light red wines and rosés. The vineyards from which the grapes used in this particular wine come are actually in a sub-region of the Languedoc referred to as Costieres de Nimes, and this area was granted appellation status in the 1980's (after a lot of estate owners lobbied hard to get it granted), changing its name from Costieres du Gard to Costieres de Nimes. It's funny, if you look around, sometimes vendors claim this wine is from the Rhone, an obvious attempt to impress people who don't try to decipher the intricacies of French wine labeling.
Notes: Ruby purple in the glass. Violet and blueberry on the nose, some earth and iodine. Once it's in the mouth it is all about earth, with some black fruit, and it's got a lot of tannin. It has a slightly harsh, chalky, bitter-chocolate finish that softened up a little with some air (and dinner), but never truly impressed me since the finish was pretty curtailed and tarry. Overall, this is a little too rustic for my tastes and not very complex. It might be better in two years... at least a little softer.
Cost: $9
Overall: C
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