Tuesday, November 4, 2008

L'Ostal Cazes 2003 Circus Shiraz (France - Languedoc)

Tonight I picked something a little further back on the rack, a 2003. I keep my wine racks in a year order, instead of by country or in old world/new world order ... by doing that I know the year of the wine I pull but not the country or producer. This wine is called Circus and at first glance I thought it was an Australian Shiraz, wasn't I surprised, when I took a closer look at the bottle, to learn that it was in fact a French wine from the Languedoc region (Southern France). The nice part of Languedoc wines is that they can mimic both old world and new world wines depending on the producer. This one smells new world with lots of plump black berries and cassis on the nose with a touch of pepper and spice. On the palate you'd also think new world as the black fruit emerges and, along with the pepper, dominates the wine, but it's the acidity that differentiates this wine from the new world (read, Australia), there's lots of it here and makes it a perfect food wine for pasta and lime mustard chicken - which is just what I had.

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