Jonathan, I join in thanking you for starting this thread and for your excellent introduction.
A CT search on my Grenache consumption gave very incomplete results but searching on Red Rhône Blend as well led to a more complete picture. I was surprised how much I have got through in the 19 months since I started using CT.
Like many people, I guess, I find Grenache and its blends capable of producing the best (almost) and the worst (certainly) and a lot in between. 100% Grenache is, I think, quite rare, exceptions which spring to mind being Rayas, Hervé Bizeul's exorbitant Petite Sibérie and VDNs from Roussillon. The first can be wonderful but I quickly drank all the bottles which I owned because I found them so delicious. I have tried to pick out from my consumption some silk purses and sow's ears as well as some in-betweens which are good QPR.
2013 Famille Perrin / Perrin & Fils Vinsobres Les Cornuds - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Vinsobres (12/28/2015)
As usual with S.Rhône, I served this quite cool and it turned out to be a very nice medium/full bodied CDRV with more savoury raspberry tinged fruit and more flinty minerals than most together with fresh acidity and good backbone. This showed robust elegance and none of the cloying heaviness quite common in the region. Very good wine and decent QPR at €9.
2012 Hecht et Bannier Maury Vintage - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Maury (12/25/2015)
A delicious Maury burgeoning with raspberry and blackberry tinged fruit also showing good minerals, lively acidity to complement the discreet sweetness and backbone. At least as good as Mas Amiel and, like that one, a perfect pairing with a chocolate based dessert. Very good wine and fair QPR at €12.
1996 Marc Parcé Rivesaltes Élevé 18 ans en barriques - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Rivesaltes (11/7/2015)
Lovely pink and amber colour. Light/medium bodied with cherry and nut infused gentle sweetness and good acidity to brighten it up against a chocolate dessert. Very good.
2014 Georges Lelektsoglou Côtes du Rhone Villages Visan Les Hautes Terres - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhone Villages Visan (10/13/2015)
This is a delightful young CdRV. Medium bodied at most but blessed with a rare purity of aroma and of strawberry and plum tinged fruit, unusually fresh tangy acidity, minerals and an attractively bitter backbone. A million miles away from some of the unctuously heavy offerings from the region and very moreish. Organic grapes and wine unfiltered. Good++ wine at very good QPR at €6.
1998 Mas Jullien Coteaux du Languedoc - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Coteaux du Languedoc (7/26/2015)
I was surprised to find that I still had a bottle from this vintage of my favourite Languedoc estate. Though the colour was still deep and vigorous, I don't think that this bottle had quite the excellence of a previous one in 2011 nor of my last bottle of 2000 earlier this year. The aromas on the nose and plate showed primary fruit, some sweet cherry, at first but with airing red rose, Southern herbs, anise and some mint, tar and leather came up and pushed the fruit into the background. Body was medium to full, the palate was well focussed, harmonious with gentle acidity, classically shaped and quite mouth-filling and long with ripe tannic support for the finish. However the alcohol (14%) was more obtrusive than I noted on that previous bottle which is probably a sign of a little fading. Still very good though.
2000 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (1/1/2015)
I have an outstanding memory of a bottle of this (but cannot find a TN) and was expecting it to "beat" the Beaucastel '99 which preceded but it didn't. It took some time to open up but when it did the fruit seemed brighter than the Beau's. This was a suave and polished CndP with full/medium body, rich fruit, good ripe tannic structure and decent length showing notes of sweet cherry and plum, hints of leather, touches of chocolate and enough pepper and spice to provide local character. The Beau had more depth and secondary development. Very good.
1999 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (1/1/2015)
Not so big as much CndP but more elegant with beautiful dark fruit showing good depth and length and infused with herb, balsamic touches and hints of forest floor and was supported on the finish by resolved tannins. Very good.
2013 Les Clos de Paulilles Collioure Cuvée Valenti - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Collioure (12/20/2014)
I am especially disappointed because this wine was recommended by the Revue du Vin de France, whose palates are usually closer to mine than , say, are the Wine Advocate's? Deep purple tinted carmine and nose of synthetic red fruit, rose hip oil and liquorice. The quite full body showed perfumed red fruit akin to that of an industrial ice cream, more rose hip, slight sweetness and harsh underlying liquorice, quinine and dry caramel becoming more pronounced towards the finish. The estate is now owned by la Maison Cazes which has a good reputation which makes this showing puzzling. I'll leave my other bottle a few years to see if there is improvement. There is certainly no temptation to reach for it.
2005 Domaine du Clos des Fées Vieilles Vignes - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Côtes du Roussillon Villages (12/2/2014)
I like this wine a lot more than some of the posters here on CT. Colour was a dense carmine red and the nose was discreet but showing beautiful notes of mature dark fruit and roses with a dash of tar. The velvety palate was full/medium bodied with depth and roundness showing the promised rose tinged dark fruit with tar touches confirmed, discreet garrigue and enough acidity for balance leading to a firm liqueur tinged finish where the high alcohol (15%) was unobtrusive. Very good classy Mediterranean wine but the prices for current vintages are quite high for Roussillon (c.€25).
PS: "Assemblage des plus vieilles vignes du domaine (50 à 100 ans) : 50 % Grenache et LLadoner Pelut, 35% Carignan, 15% Syrah."
(91 pts.)
1999 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (10/4/2014)
This was a beautiful CndP at its peak. It was not a blockbuster and showed an unusual Burgundy type elegance. It had medium/full body, velvety texture, smooth acidity, round sweet cherry tinged fruit infused with game and forest floor notes leading to a decently long and firm finish with kirsch hints. It was an ideal pairing for reindeer steak brought back from Finland. Excellent.
2012 Bodegas Borsao Garnacha Campo de Borja Tres Picos - Spain, Aragón, Campo de Borja (7/31/2014)
This wine is a caricature of all that I dislike in "modern" interventionist wine-making. Some concentrated (and potentially attractive?) brambly fruit is swamped by a spine of dry caramel (undigested wood) and the finish is more than spicy - it is burning and abrasive. We were unable to drink more than a glass each. I strongly doubt whether more age would render this wine more drinkable for me but I'm keeping back the undrunk two-thirds of the bottle to see what a day open brings.
1996 Domaine des Grands Devers Côtes du Rhône Villages Valréas - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages (7/27/2014)
This is a lovely wine, which like so many does not tick the conventional boxes for a high score. The colour is quite light with strong tawny tints. But the nose shows lively but round cherry aromas with metallic and meat hints more like a northern than southern Rhône. The medium/light palate has an almost Burgundian elegance adding lively acidity, peppery notes and secondary flavours to the fruit which carries on the aromas from the nose and culminates in a firm but gentle backbone and a quietly lingering finish.
René Sinard, the then owner, enjoyed a fan club amongst Rhône connoisseurs in Belgium where I lived for over 40 years. IMO the enthusiasm is fully justified on the evidence of the bottles I have drunk. The enthusiasm does not extend to the present owners since about 2000.
2011 Mas Amiel Côtes du Roussillon Villages Pur Schiste - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Côtes du Roussillon Villages (6/19/2014)
IMO this French Catalan wine really gives a lesson to yesterday's Montsant L'Altre de Can Blau from Spanish Catalonia made from the same cocktail of grape varieties though probably in different proportions. The main difference here is absence of burgeoning oak which allows the taste of the wine to come through and very good it is. Colour is deep red and the nose immediately shows dense dark fruit with a hint of liquorice. The palate is quite full and dense with lots of dark fruit laced with spice, mineral hints and again a little liquorice and has sufficient substance for the high alcohol to remain unobtrusive. I'll certainly buy more bottles unless the local Leclerc supermarket sells out before I get to it. Good. QPR! at €10.
2012 Cellers Can Blau Montsant L'Altre de Can Blau - Spain, Catalunya, Tarragona, Montsant (6/18/2014)
This is not my sort of wine. It is a disappointment but not a surprise because a heavy hand with oak is an unfortunate aspect of a lot of Spanish winemaking. Quite full bodied and there is probably some fine red and dark fruit lurking here and maybe Mediterranean spices but at this stage it was dominated by notes of dry caramel particularly towards the finish. Indeed I’m a little surprised that the claimed 6 months in the wood was enough to give such a displeasing result. If this were, say, Bordeaux, I would be fairly confident that the dry caramel would integrate with time but I have no idea whether this will happen with Montsant. Fair with ? future.