The Second Glass

It was the end of a long hard night at the bar, and the mood was straight out of an Edward Hopper painting: I needed a stiff drink to soothe my throbbing psyche. None of those pedestrian pours would do - I wanted the best: our latest special, Domaine Du Pegau Plan Pegau Lot #2004. The wine is austere and leathery in both the aroma and in the finish, but the initial flavors of spicy, red plum and velvety texture make it one dynamic little glass of wine. Fellow blogger The Corkdork obviously agrees, as he picked this as one of two wines for the last Wine Blog Wednesday round-up.

This Grenache driven, southern Rhone blend, includes 15% declassified 2002 Chatueneuf-du-Pape in the mix. Wait! Declassified?! So these grapes can finally speak about what really goes on in the Rhone Valley without fear of reprisal for some cloak and dagger operations? Maybe that’s what’s really behind the recent spate of supermarket explosions in the Languedoc.

All kidding aside, a wine can be declassified for a number of reasons: Perhaps the lousy weather resulted in a lackluster harvest. In that case, producers might not bother to make a vintage for that particular year, preferring to sell it off to a larger negociant rather than taint their name with a sub-par offering. The Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AOC), the body that sets the rules for French wine production, is incredibly strict regarding its labelling. Therefore, a wine may be called Chateuneuf-du-Pape only if it has met several criteria. These include not only permissible grape varietals, but yield and harvest restrictions as well. This extra juice has to go somewhere, and many producers choose to add some into their entry level blends, allowing them to achieve a sophistication and elegance that might not be possible otherwise. Think of it as a band with a cult following that’s trying to gain that crucial cross-over appeal - don’t call it selling out untill you check out the final product.