Perrin Reserve 2001 Côtes du Rhône Rouge

I don’t drink much French wine at the moment. I don’t have any particular reasons other than I simply tend to focus more on all there is to offer in ‘New World’ wines. Wines like this one don’t really help my interest though.

But I guess I was predisposed to notice something from the Rhone the other day because Kelly was raving about a Rhone wine from Condrieu she’d had. Granted, given the price point, I wasn’t really expecting this to be of the same caliber as the wine she’d had, but it’s all part of the exploration, right?

There’s a nice write-up of the 2000 vintage of this wine in the online Seattle Post Intelligencer. If you believe published vintage charts, 2001 should have been at least as good a year.

Upon initially opening the bottle, this wine had a really nice floral scent to it. The mouth feel though is really simple and short-lived. In fact, the wine seemed to wilt quickly in the mouth. It seemed to be more enjoyable with some gouda cheese I had rather than on its own.

The wine is made from 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre and 10% Cinsault grapes. 

Price

About $10 (Austin)

Overall

 light, pleasant, simple red wine. Paired up pretty well with some 2 yr old aged gouda cheese. Will probably skip it favor of something else the next time.

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