Review: Vin de France Rouge 'Prestige' Daniel Bessiere

This guest blog is from Laura Hadland who blogs at Extreme Housewife. In this post, she reviews a sample of Vin de France Rouge 'Prestige' Daniel Bessiere, available now from Just Great Wine.

I approached this wine with some doubts. The label claims it to be a fruity red mixed from the finest grapes - but no specific grape varieties are mentioned. This is something I would perhaps avoid normally, as I am happy to cling to what I know, the familiar varieties of Shiraz and Rioja calling to me over their nameless 'table wine' friends.

However, in this case, there was no real cause for alarm. The wine smells of rich fruit, but also that hint of the barrels that the wine was, albeit briefly, aged in. As I start to drink more wine, and think more about what I am drinking, I am starting to associate this smell of the cask very much with French wines.

Upon drinking, I get a juicy blackberry but it is also quite a thin, almost astringent type of flavour - I've really struggled to identify what it is I can taste and smell and I feel like there are elements of an almost dark treacle flavour,a hint of parkin at bonfire night, but very much without the sweetness.. This wine is quite high in tannins but not overly tart, and there is definitely no real sweetness to this wine at all.

It is 12% so a medium alcohol content, but I thought it tastes a bit stronger because of the savouriness of the flavour. However, that said, it is definitely a light bodied wine with very little aftertaste. Overall, this is quite easy drinking for the price of £7.17 per bottle. However, I wouldn't call it a beginner's wine. It is more complex, and not as approachable for its lightness of body and absence of sweetness.

We enjoyed it with a salami and vegetable dish, and it was able to complement the light spicing of the sausage and not over power the vegetables, so I thought t was an excellent table wine in this respect and great value for money.

You can follow Laura on Twitter here and view her blog here.

Vin de France Rouge 'Prestige' Daniel Bessiere is available to buy from Just Great Wine.

Review: Les Deux Cesars Blanc 2011, Domaine Sainte Rose IGP

This guest blog is from Laura Hadland who blogs at Extreme Housewife. In this post, she reviews a sample of Les Deux Cesars Blanc 2011, available now from Just Great Wine.

The label gives a romantic tale about a broken Roman coin found in the vineyard - which demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the Tetrarchy, established by the Emperor Diocletian as a response to the various crises in the Empire during the third century. But I'll let them off, Domaine de Sainte Rose are clearly aiming more to be winemakers than historians and it makes a nice story. Plus (and I don't know whether this is intentional) this wine is made from a nice blend of four grape varieties, which does represent the two emperors and two caesars which made up the system quite nicely.

The wine is a pleasant pale straw colour. It has a floral, light smell. It is very delicate on the nose, not over powering at all, which I thought boded well for a nice, light white. And at the first taste, I was proved right. The flavour is very smooth, with a very faint creaminess - nothing like the over the top butteriness of a Chardonnay, but very pleasant texturally.

There is a pleasant citrusy flavour to this wine - a light grapefruit flavour or even perhaps a faint lemony taste, but it is definitely not overly acidic. It is refreshing, rather than punchy. This means it has a soft finish, which makes it very drinkable. It is hard to pinpoint more subtle flavours in the wine, perhaps because it is a blend of so many varieties, but it is certainly a very successful mix.

The light flavour is quite delicate - I think it would match nicely with a light lunch - perhaps a fish or salad dish. The slightly lower alcohol content means I think that you could match it with a zingy chilli flavour - I'm thinking chilli squid or something like that. We tried it on it's own, without food, and found that it matched very well with chilling on the sofa, watching Hot Fuzz.

You can get this wine for £10.52 per bottle. I asked The Boy how much he would be prepared to pay, without telling him the retail value and he said about £8, which considering he would always pick a red over a white is testimony to how enjoyable this wine is - he would always pay less for a good white!

You can follow Laura on Twitter here and view her blog here.

Les Deux Cesars Blanc is available to buy exclusively from Just Great Wine.

Review - Les Deux Cesars Rouge 2010, Domaine Sainte Rose IGP

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.

Les Deux Cesars Rouge 2010 is available to buy from Just Great Wine.