This guest blog is from Mike Matthews who blogs at magicsnewbiewines.com. In this post, he reviews a sample of Les Deux Cesars Rouge 2010, available now from Just Great Wine.
Brits Charles and Rose Simpson bought Domaine Sainte Rose in
the Languedoc region of France back in 2002. Following on from Charles’
successful career in Pharmaceutical marketing with GlaxoSmithKline and Merck
plus Roses deep rooted family history with whisky producer William Grant, the
couple have taken the difficult task of producing wine from one of the country’s
most expressive and re-emerging wine regions. Along with other ex-pats from
Britain, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, USA, Netherland, Australia and
Sweden, the couple are part of a group called ‘The Outsiders.’ The commonality
amongst them was their decision to move to the Languedoc-Roussillon region and
start a career in wine, recognising the potential of the areas terroir.
Les Deux Cesars – 2010 is a wine made exclusively for
justgreatwine.co.uk. This is a blend of native varieties; Syrah, Mourvedre and
Grenache. The wine shows great regional warming characters that I like. There’s
a rich depth of fruit that continues to develop on the nose; black fruit, soft
spice, a touch of tobacco and violets. After a short period those spices begin
to lift to leave some noticeable raspberry aromas. The palate doesn’t lack
depth either; black cherry, chocolate, warm forest fruit flavours. Tannins are
fairly restricted whilst the acidity levels work well. It’s all about the
fruit!
At £10.52 a bottle this is a good example of where the south
is heading. Languedoc has long lived in the shadows of its more prestigious
neighbours, Rhone, Bordeaux and Burgundy but it’s an area I’ve enjoyed for a
while. With wines like this evolving it won’t be long before the rest of the
wine drinking community wakes up and starts to fill their boots, or racks in
this case. Enjoy!
You can follow Mike on Twitter here and view his blog here.
