From the Cellar
Xavier 2011 and Barossa Valley 2001 (France / Australia)
21 Sep 2014- Details
- Category: Uncorked Tonight
(August 3, 2014) ... I really enjoy dinner at my brother's place, not only do I get to torment my niece (who seems to love every minute of it) but I usually end up bringing some oddball wines over, some hit the mark while others fall flat. Today I took four with me: an Australian, a French and two Ontario. Below I'll discuss the international wines and at the end of this post I'll link up the Ontario offerings to their Taste it Again article.
The first bottle to be opened was an Xavier 2001 Pic Saint-Loup, a wine from the Languedoc region of France, that, if memory serves, is primarily a Syrah based blend. This wine proved to be a little tired, with dried red fruit, white pepper and hints of oak. Murky in color, I would hazard a guess to it being unfiltered, but as the night wore on the acidity came around to help bring balance to all the elements and in the end proved to be quite a nice match with the lamb.
The second international wine was a bottle of Barossa Valley 2001 Spires Shiraz, at first the nose stunk and seemed corked, but I kept coming back to it and over the course of some two hours it managed to open up nicely into a sweet (maybe stewed) fruited concoction with dried sweet cherry and a plumy-pruney sort of finish. While not fantastic it surely was more drinkable after 2 hours than it was when first popped.
As for the domestic wines, both were from Chateau des Charmes' St. David's vineyard site, both were from the 2005 vintage and both were Cabs: Franc & Sauv. See how they fared by clicking here.
