Sunday, July 17, 2011

Montrail - Gervais - La Posta (France / Argentina)

Last night of this short and sweet trip to Pine Island (Lake Nipissing) and it seems we have a Mediterranean flair to our last supper.  Have no fear, I'll put a stop to that by showing up with three wines, two from the Rhone Valley in France and another from Argentina - and all red blends.

Kicking off the last supper was the pre-dinner Cave de Montrail 2009 Segruet - Cotes du Rhone Villages ... this one was fairly harsh on the old palate.  Starting with the nose the aromas were blackberry, cassis and a hint of pepper, obviously fairly inviting.  Palate-wise there was some beautiful red fruit with black fruit backing along with some rugged pepper corns and the drying effect of cocoa powder.  Very good but very grippy, this wine will need a few years to settle down.

With an extra two years under its belt the St. Gervais 2007 Le Reserve du Crouzau - Cotes du Rhone Villages has smoothed out making it a wonderful match with the hopped up Medi-chicken.  Red fruit, blueberry and spice on the nose hints mildly at what is to come on the wonderfully full and enjoyable palate:  spiced-vanilla-blueberry with a mixture of white and black pepper and a chocolatey finish ... it glided smoothly across the tongue with just a mere hint of tannin.  Lovely.

At this point  it was not hard to convince everyone they needed to try one more (for the road) so I opened a bottle of La Posta 2008 Cocina Blend (bought specifically for the cottage experience).  A blend of 60% Malbec and equal parts Bonarda and Syrah this Argentine wine really delivered on the fruit.  Nose was a little bit of everything to everyone: cassis, pencil shavings and a touch brambly in nature, but the palate was focused and delivered rich dark fruit, vanilla, plum, black cherry, cinnamon and sweet pepper ... turned out to be a favourite around the table ... as I knew it would be.

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