2006 J. Vidal Fleury Côtes du Rhône

I'm trying to be more open to French wines. Ms Cocktail was never a fan and I've shied away from them for this reason. However, I've determined that isn't going to be the case anymore, I'm going to educate myself on French wines. I quickly discovered that the French do not label their wines by the type of grape juice used in the production of the wine, but rather, by the region where the grape was grown. This region may be allowed to grow only several types of grapes and this lends itself to more blends than a strict single grape variety of wine. At least this is my initial impression, I could have it wrong.

I've been hearing people rave over this or that Chateauneuf du Pape but for the most part, my limited budget can't support my tasting too many of them. My last tasting was from the same general area of France but from a different AOC, Gigondas. This time, I opted for something from that same area again, but again a different AOC, this time it is Côtes du Rhône. Literally translated, Côtes du Rhône mean coast of Rhone which implies that this region is on the hillsides near the Rhone River. Suddenly, this naming convention doesn't seem so strange.

The wine is a 2006 Côtes du Rhône from J. Vidal Fleury. This wine house is the oldest in the Rhone valley, originally founded in 1781. I would hope than during all these years, they would have figured out a thing or two about making wine. I was not disappointed.

This wine has a nice deep garnet color, with enough transluceny to see flashes of light through it when the light hits it right. Very pretty. It's nose presents charcoal and smoke with a slightly spicy aroma. At first you taste a spicy strawberry with a touch of smoke. It doesn't last long but it leaves behind a touch of strawberry. This is a smooth wine without a lot of tannins. I personally think that this would be great paired with cheeses or lamb. I also think that this is a great value as it can be found around $12 per bottle.