Tuesday Blind Tastings
Charles Melton Nine Popes Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre 2014
Barossa Valley, Australia
Price: $78
Rating: 92
Source: Jim's Cellars
Description: Medium bodied with red on the rim. Spice, pepper, mocha and vanilla on the nose. The palate was spicy with red fruits, liquorice and heat evident. A good wine that will improve with cellaring.
Tasting date: 30 October 2018
394.St. Joseph is a region producing wine of variable quality. The appellation expanded from a tight 360 hectares in the late 1980s to more than 800 hectares today.This sprawl means a lot of young vines and lesser quality terrain are in the mix, given the best fruit comes from older vines and the most suitable vineyard conditions. When buying wine from St. Joseph, buy from a reliable producer. 395.The red wines of St. Joseph are made from Syrah and the whites are made from Marsanne and Rousanne grapes.Two reliable producers of wines from St. Joseph are Domaine Jean-Louis Chave and M. Chapoutier. 396.Hermitage makes robust and majestic red wine that ages well. It is made from 100 percent Syrah, and has serious aging potential. One of the best producers of Hermitage is Domaine Jean-Louis Chave. Curiously, but not surprisingly, red wines of Hermitage had such status in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that its wines commanded prices similar to those of Bordeaux-classed growths. 114 1000 BEST WINE SECRETS 397.Hermitage is also home to white wine that is almost as exciting as the red, yet not as well-known, made from Marsanne and Rousanne. This wine is medium- to full-bodied and dry, and accounts for about a third of the wine