2006 Perrin & Fils Côtes du Rhône Villages Vinsobres Les Cornuds, 50% Syrah, 50% Grenache, 14% alc., $18.99: Showing clean dark color, this offers briary red plum and berry aromas that echo and expand on the palate with earthy, leathery undertones.  Balanced, well structured and already drinking quite well with some air, this is traditional in character, but not rustic; in short, it’s my kind o’ red wine, and it just gets better and better as it opens in the glass.  Sourced from the Perrin family’s vineyards at Domaine de la Bicarelle and from the Julien estate (45 hectares/111 acres) located near the small village of Cornuds, on the northern side of the Vinsobres appellation.  This vineyard consists of a single block that runs over some magnificent sloped and terraced hillside facing South-southwest at an average height of 300 meters above sea. Grapes are de-stemmed, with Syrah macerated in truncated tapered wooden vats with cap punching and pumping over, and Grenache in stainless steel tanks, then blended after malolactic fermentation. Matured in stainless steel (80%) and two year old barrels, with six months bottle aging before release. Find this wine

2006 Perrin & Fils Vacqueyras Les Christins, 75% Grenache, 25 % Syrah, 14.5% alc., $28: Clean dark color, with slightly dusty, leathery iron, cola and black fruit flavors and aromas; good concentration, well structured and, like the Vinsobres noted directly above, traditional but not rustic, and very approachable with a little air.  Rich and balanced, this is a fine specimen from one of our favorite wine producing regions, and will benefit from three to five years in the cellar, but I’d probably be guilty of killing off a case over the next year or so, it’s that good already.  Not nearly as chunky and unyielding as the previous vintage, and while I like this wine a lot, I’m not that pleased with its suggested retail price (SRP) of $6 more than last year’s model.  The 20 acre Les Christins vineyard is located in the commune of Sarrians, leased by the Perrin family and operated by the Beaucastel team; vines average around 50 years of age. After crushing, the grapes are slowly fermented for a month in 50-hectoliter vats, and then matured half in tank and half in cask. Find this wine

2005 Perrin & Fils Châteauneuf du Pape Les Sinards, 70% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 15% Mourvedre, 14% alc., $41: Clean dark color, with dusty black berry and plum on the nose; plenty more of the same on the palate, with a solid anchor of earth and iron, along with overtones of cola.  Well structured, with very good depth, and yet approachable at this early point in its life.  Excellent CdP character, and one of the best Les Sinards we’ve had; a ten to fifteen year wine to be sure.  Again, a wine I quite like, but perhaps a little less so for the SRP of  $7 more than the 2003 model.  Sourced from the younger vines at Beaucastel, together with a leased vineyard of 7 hectares that lies to the West of Beaucastel, on the commune of Orange and some vineyards leased in the center of the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the geology of which is Diluvial alpine deposits with rolled pebbles over a former molasse sea-bed of the miocene epoch (tertiary period).  Part of the harvest is vinified using the specific Beaucastel technique of heating the grapes. The rest is vinified traditionally, after de-stemming.  Matured in casks for one year (100%), then bottled after fining and light filtering.  Find this wine

2005 Perrin & Fils Côtes du Rhône Villages, 50% Syrah, 50% Grenache, 13% alc., $14.99: Not sure why the Perrins are releasing a 2005 Côtes du Rhône Villages at the same time as the ’06 single vineyard appellation wines, but here it is.  Nice dark color, with a dusty dark plum, cherry, berry and currant nose that carries over onto the palate with balance and harmony, and happily, none of the chocolate character of last year’s model.  Full bodied, yet without any sense of “heaviness;” well structured, with unobtrusive tannins, ample acids and decent length in the finish.  Nice rich fruit, but not in the “international” style, and I like this better than its predecessor, which we tried again about a week before this.  It should develop and improve over at least the next few years.  Syrah sourced from a leased vineyard in Visan, Grenache from a leased vineyard in Saint Gervais; de-stemmed whole berries heated to 176 degrees F, then cooled to 68 degrees F; macerated in concrete vats, then matured in large oak vats (25%) and concrete tanks, and bottled after egg white fining. Find this wine

2006 La Vieille Ferme Côtes du Ventoux Rouge, 50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 15% Carignan, 15% Cinsault, 13.5% alc., $7.99-8.99: Always a solid value, this shows good color along with red currant, berry and plum flavors and aromas shaded with some earth and a hint of ash; good depth of fruit and decent structure make it an ideal everyday red and a QPR All Star.  Sourced from vines grown high on the slopes of Mount Ventoux, in sediment left by the seas of the Tertiary Period, red Mediterranean soils mixed with chalk debris and round stones.  Sees 10 months in both cement vats and large oak barrels, then fined, filtered and bottled. Find this wine

Perrin & Fils and La Vieille Ferme imported by Vineyard Brands, Inc., Birmingham, AL  

1999 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas, 14.5% alc.: This attractive ruby garnet colored Gigondas still shows significant structure, with its ample tannins and acids, and it offers smoky roasted stone over black plum and berry, laced with iron and cola.  Big, rich, full bodied and not yet at its peak, this definitely shows a “sense of place” with its earthy character, and could easily go another five years in the cellar.  If there’s one slight drawback, the finish isn’t all that it could be, but perhaps time will rectify that as the tannins resolve.  
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2001 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas, 14.5% alc.: The rich dark color presages the rich dark flavors  and aromas of iron, cola and earthy black plum and berry; big and powerful, with excellent depth, structure and length, this has both a subtle perfumed quality and a leathery undertone that emerges with air.  Great now with a hot pork sandwich and a Red Wings game, and even better with another three to five years or more in the cellar. Find this wine

Domaine Santa Duc Wines Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC  

2005 M. Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône Belleruche, $13.5% alc., $8.99: I’ll say it again; the wines from Chapoutier that we’ve had over the last 10 years or so that have blown our hair back have been few and far between, and more of them have been the heavyweights than otherwise.  Still, while this entry level offering isn’t anything special, neither is it a dud.  It shows nice dark color and earthy black plum and currant flavors and aromas, along with undertones of espresso, underbrush and a hint of licorice.  Less expressive the the Kermit Lynch model noted below, but structured to age longer, so perhaps there’s a trade-off there.  A solid CdR that should improve over the next three years or more, but you can certainly drink it now with an hour in a decanter and/or grilled meats and hearty stews.    Find this wine

2005 Kermit Lynch Cuvée Côtes du Rhône, 14% alc., $12.99: Always a welcome libation at our house, the current version of this wine shows appealing dark color, along with rich dark plum and berry flavors and aromas shaded with mocha coffee, earth and underbrush.  Good structure and yet eminently drinkable, and while a year or two in the cellar wouldn’t hurt it at all, it’ll never last that long around our house.  Balanced and expressive, this is our
go-to CdR so far this season. Find this wine

Imported by Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA

Reporting from Day-twah,