I avoided the French aisles of wine shops for ages, mostly because I was intimidated by names like this one: Château Beauchêne Vignoble De La Vialle Côtes du Rhône Villages. And in addition to being a fairly hefty name, many of the French producers use the fanciest scripted fonts they can find, making it totally impossible to read. The font on this one isn’t too bad, compared to some others I’ve seen, and if you spend some time with French wines the language barrier isn’t so bad either.
There’s a lot of stuff in this name, so let’s break it down to simplify it… Producer: Château Beauchêne, Brand/Designation: Vignoble De La Vialle, Appellation: Côtes du Rhône Villages.
I had mentioned at the start of this series on Côtes du Rhône that I would feature a couple from the Villages appellation. This usually signifies a step up in quality and value, but in this case I found it to be fairly comparable with non-Villages Côtes du Rhône wines.
This is a Southern Rhone wine, with grapes coming from vineyards in the North and South of Orange, France. The blend is Grenache 53%, Syrah 30%, Cinsault 7% and Carignan 10%.
Blackberry pie in a cedar chest is the best way I can summarize the aromas from this wine. There is a definite blackberry aroma, but it has a little extra sweetness to it, which is why I would say blackberry pie. It also has a hint of barnyard smell — yes, by that I mean a sweet manure smell. It’s not a bad thing though, I promise.
The palate is soft and approachable. I would characterize it as a soft blackberry and plum with a wee bit of black pepper. Overall, it’s a decent wine. It’s a reasonable value and it’s a medium-bodied wine, making it versatile for matching with food.
One bonus you get with this one that you don’t get with a lot of other wines is a fancy bottle—with a design in the glass. My wife liked it so much that she asked me to give her the bottle when I’m done with it. I guess it will end up becoming our next dish soap dispenser. Weeee!
Wine: Château Beauchêne Vignoble De La Vialle
Varietal: Côtes du Rhône Villages
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 84
Price Paid: $10.99