On Fri, 23 Jan 2015 16:12:30 -0800, Michael Nielsen wrote:

> On Friday, January 23, 2015 at 9:46:35 PM UTC+1, santiago wrote:
>>
>> But was it 2007 or 2009? Very (very) different vintages. 2007 is a very
>> weak vintage, with plenty of diluted wines, and if you dislike french
>> wines for being "thin and acidic" this is the kind of Bordeaux vintage
>> to avoid.
>
> It is actually 2007. Seems this winemaker held the fort during this
> vintage.
>
There were good wines made in 07, just a lot more difficult that 09. And
of course it would not be possible to make a wine of the 09 standard in
07. Anyway LT is a modern styled wine that I find reliable and OK at the
price (which is certainly not cheap!)
>
>> For what is worth, considering french wine as thin and acidic is quite
>> unfair, since France is quite a large country with a high diversity of
>> terroirs. You cannot compare a red from Anjou and one from Languedoc-
>> Roussillon.
>
> Not familiar with those. I know a Côtes de Castillon 20E chat. de
> gasparde prestige I like, as it has the right notes, but still a bit
> thin, hahah, but then I tried other wines from that region and they were
> not good.
>

As Santiago says, France has many different wine regions and the
character of them, like the grapes used, is very different. FWIW Cotes
de Castillon is also made often mostly from Merlot, though both Cabernet
Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon are also authorized as principle grapes.
(The secondary varieties are Carmenere, cot and petit verdot for reds).
The one you like may have more cabernet sauvignon, but most of the time
these wines are built to be lesser cousins to St. Emilion. BTW 20 EU is
quite expensive for a castillon.

>> If you like riper reds, I think you should concentrate on Saint Emilion
>> in Bordeaux,
>
> I've had some saint emilions before. Also some fancy primier cru that
> the store was so proud of. Horrible. Thin and acidic,yes. its how I got

Since you don't like merlot, don't waste your money on St. Emilion. More
for the rest of us!

[]

A lot of wine from the southern Rhone is made to drink quickly and
doesn't have much of the tannins that you like. Oddly where you might
find success is in some of the IGP (used to be VDQS or vin de pays). For
example the "Principauté d'Orange" is sometimes grown on similar or
identical land where Chateauneuf du Pape is made, (though it can come
from much further north also) and made from high percentages of ripe,
tannic syrah. But since there are many more varieties authorized than in
an AOP wine, you have to step a little carefully if your tastes are
narrowly defined.

Another area that might interest you is the south west, Madiran or some
Cahors that are built with a huge amount of tannins (from the Tannat
grape, you can guess how it got its name).

-E

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