Chateau Pesquie, Terrasses (Ventoux), 2006
Robert Parker (or at least his Wine Advocate) loves this wine. They gave this vintage a 90; and the one before that, they gave a 92. So it's got to be great, right? Not terrible, but we didn't find it to be great, exactly. Here's what we found ...
The nose was vanilla, stems, red cherry, saw dust, and rose. There was also that barnyard smell -- hay and manure -- but it was very subtle. The taste was a combo of red cherry and raspberry -- not exactly sweet, or sour. The finish starts with the cherry and raspberry, flashes with pepper, and then dissolves into raspberry.
Most striking is how fruity this wine is -- I won't have guessed from the taste that this was an old world wine. Though the aromas were very interesting, the taste was fairly simple (fruit). In some ways it reminded me of some 2005 Oregon Pinots we've had recently -- a bit sweet at the start, and sort of overly acidic (perhaps this 06 was just a tad young?). It was, of course, more peppery than a Pinot, yet the body was similar: a light to medium body. Denise found it: "not that interesting".
Cost:
Rating:
7.0(70% Grenache, 30% Syrah)