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2016 Bandol Rouge
Domaine du Gros ’NoréA visit with Alain Pascal in La Cadière d’Azur in June confirmed that his vintage 2016 rouge is one that will grace my California table often. Most likely as Jim Harrison might have enjoyed it, with copious quantities of crushed garlic and red meat (wild game, if I can get my hands on some—my southern roots are distant out here in California—I need to find someone who will trade me hunting rights for wine!). Alain’s largely whole-cluster Mourvèdre in 2016 is a dark beauty, a tapenade of black olives infused with wild southern herbs, earth, and stones, with a glorious tannin that shows no aggression.
—Dixon Brooke
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2016 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | 80% Mourvèdre, 15% Grenache, 5% Cinsault |
Appellation: | Bandol |
Country: | France |
Region: | Provence |
Producer: | Domaine du Gros ‘Noré |
Winemaker: | Alain Pascal |
Vineyard: | 14 ha |
Soil: | Clay |
Farming: | Lutte Raisonnée |
Alcohol: | 14.5% |
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About The Region
Provence
Perhaps there is no region more closely aligned with the history to Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant than Provence. Provence is where Richard Olney, an American ex-pat and friend of Alice Waters, lived, and introduced Kermit to the great producers of Provence, most importantly Domaine Tempier of Bandol. Kermit also spends upwards of half his year at his home in a small town just outside of Bandol.
Vitis vinifera first arrived in France via Provence, landing in the modern day port city of Marseille in the 6th century BC. The influence of terroir on Provençal wines goes well beyond soil types. The herbs from the pervasive scrubland, often referred to as garrigue, as well as the mistral—a cold, drying wind from the northwest that helps keep the vines free of disease—play a significant role in the final quality of the grapes. Two more elements—the seemingly ever-present sun and cooling saline breezes from the Mediterranean—lend their hand in creating a long growing season that result in grapes that are ripe but with good acidity.
Rosé is arguably the most well known type of wine from Provence, but the red wines, particularly from Bandol, possess a great depth of character and ability to age. The white wines of Cassis and Bandol offer complexity and ideal pairings for the sea-influenced cuisine. Mourvèdre reigns king for red grapes, and similar to the Languedoc and Rhône, Grenache, Cinsault, Marsanne, Clairette, Rolle, Ugni Blanc among many other grape varieties are planted.
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2020 Côtes de Provence Syrah “Les Planches de la Garedivole”
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2021 Côtes de Provence “Blanc de Blancs”
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2021 Vin de Pays du Mont Caume Rouge “Terre d’Ombre”
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Kermit once said...
Kermit once said...
Living wines have ups and downs just as people do, periods of glory and dog days, too. If wine did not remind me of real life, I would not care about it so much.