This wine was highlighted as a Best Buy (87 pts, $9) in WS a few issues ago. It is a Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvedre blend that I picked up for about $9.50 tonight.

-Cool not-quite purply red, not intense, quite clear even though it is "only lightly fined and filtered"
-uncomplicated nose of oak? sweet cherries, maybe grape jam
-low key generic fruit on the attack, minerally, nice tartness, piquant tannins. Light bodied
-overall, an interesting, peppy sipper to have with munchies. Went ok with veggie stew, was a little overwhelmed by admittedly over-ripe raclette livradoux cheese. Worth the money to experiment or if you like the style, probably wouldn't buy a case. Worth the 87 points.

WS offers kind of an odd review of this, but what sticks out in my mind is their terroir and "wet stone" comments. I can certainly see what they're talking about, and was definitely worth the cost of the experiment.

I've enojoyed this wine recently and agree very much with your TN's. "wet stone" ? I'm not sure what you mean but I agree it did have a slightly taut mineral character. Is this what you mean?

Hey Jeremy-

The "wet stone" comment was made in the WS notes. Unfortunately, I don't have the review handy for the exact wording (it's not online yet), but they stressed the (inorganic) earthy, mineral quality of this wine. I though it was an interesting example of this style and, after tasting this wine, I can almost imagine what they mean by "wet stone". I just thought it was neat to have such a good example of this rather odd sounding descriptor.

Does that help?

cheers,

Ouch on the price bugguy! The local Cost Plus puts this stuff on sale for about $5.00 just about once a month. They have all three varities as well. Red, rose and white. This is made by the Perrin brothers of Chateau Beucastel fame. It is somewhat rustic and a generic style of Rhone, but it is great for cooking.

p-r

Yeah, I took it on the chin ($8.99 pre-tax)pricewise for a number of reasons. First, there is no "discount/warehouse" wine retailor here in town- not much competition. Second, I bought it on a whim- if I had planned my purchase, I could have either gotten it on sale or got my "frequent customer discount" at another wineshop, or both.

Your suggestion to use it for cooking is interesting- if I could actually get it for $5, I might try it out...

Thanks Bugguy,
Thats exactly what I meant to, kind minerally earthy.
We pay between 16 -20 NZD here (about 8-10 USD)so I think thats not bad, but then again the wines travelled another 5000 k to get here.