Recommendation: Recommended as a buy.
Winery/Producer: Pierre Amadieu, Domaine Grand Romane.
Grape Variety: Blend: 65% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre and 15% Syrah.
Geographic Region, Appellation: Gigondas, Southern Rhône Valley, France.
Vintage: 2006.
Price: $24.99
Purchased From: Total Wine; Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Paired With: Split pea soup with ham, carrots, onion and celery.
Tasting:
He said: Opened 20 minutes before drinking. Very dark, somewhat opaque, garnet color. VERY intense alcohol accompanied by sweet dark fruit aromas. Very strong, smooth, dry, a little bitter (not sour) ripe dark fruit taste that goes VERY, VERY fast to an unusual dusty dark tea flavor with lots and lots of limestone mineral in the medium-long finish. (Note: The last couple of pours had just a tiny bit of sediment.) There was a lush richness to this wine and it went VERY well with the strong, salty ham flavors of the soup; however, it was not nearly as good drinking alone after dinner. For me the strong alcohol aroma right through the last sip was disappointing and the wine really didn’t begin to open up till we were drinking the last sips. We made a BIG mistake in not decanting this one and our second bottle will be decanted for sure. The bottle label says “taste with wild boar stew” which we don’t have very often!!! However, the second bottle will be served with a rich red meat and I’m expecting a great pairing. In the end we may have been to hard on this wine, it was really pretty good and our lack of decanting may have prevented it from being really great…so were going to withhold our recommendation until we taste our second bottle.
2nd Tasting: For me the Domaine Grand Romane was just a little rough around the edges. The 2010 Saint-Damien Les Souteyrades was a little richer, more complex flavors and a lot more going on in the wine. While the 2011 Saint-Damien was so smooth it was silky. All were great with the strong beef stew flavors.
She said: Tonight’s wine was a pig in a poke, we hadn’t had this before and after enjoying a Grenache blend so much a few nights before we thought it would go well with the strong ham flavors of the soup. My first impression was “WOW” based on the bouquet and first taste of sweet fruit. With its full body and dryness it went well with the saltiness of the soup but once the soup was finished the experience changed. The fruitiness became overwhelming and clawing and a bitterness emerged that lasted into the finish. As the wine sat open lots of fine tannins also emerged, so much so the character of the wine dramatically improved.
2nd Tasting: Our second bottle was served with Ray’s beef stew with winter root vegetables and it was delicious. The other two bottles (Saint-Damien 2011 Gigondas and Saint-Damien Les Souteyrades 2010 Gigondas) we had the previous evening, had been corked, refrigerated and brought to room temperature but lost something as a result. This one was opened two hours before dinner based on previous experience. I had Ray do a blind tasting for me and I covered my eyes with my napkin. None had a notable bouquet; this one had the most flavor, the Saint-Damien 2011 was the smoothest but didn’t have the nuances of flavors that the Saint-Damien Les Sauteyrades 2010 had. All were delicious with the dinner and I would have any of them again.
Comments: We had the second bottle, side-by-side with two other Gigondas (Saint-Damien 2011 and Saint-Damien Les Souteyrades 2010), and although we didn’t like this one best, it was flavorful and very delicious with the beef stew.
Alcohol: 14.5%
Bar code: 8 70749 00061 2