Terre Rouge Noir

[Innkeeper]

1997 Terre Rouge Noir, Sierra Foothills ($20). This is Easton/Terre Rouge's flagship red. It runs 45% grenache, 35% moruvedre, and 20% syrah; 14.8% alcohol, and 6.2 gm/ltr total acidity. Open the bottle and immediately the aroma attacks your nose. Much stronger and delightful than I've ever found in any of the individual grapes' wines. These grapes, incidentally, come from very specific Sierra Foothills vinyards. Color is black red. It goes over the lips and through the gums with juicy juice from a wide variety of red fruit. The full body, spicy complexity, balanced acid, smooth tannin, caress your palate. The finish is five alarm. This perfectly structured wine is the best red American Rhone Ranger I've ever tried, bar none. Married perfectly with a sliced grillpanned boneless sirloin steak and salad. Admittedly at the top of the $$ price point, it is well worth it. Plan to order more, as well as more Terra Rouge Enigma (the best white Rhone Ranger) today.

[Drew]

Great notes, IK, will look for some in this area.

Drew

[vinman]

Yes!
Do you think that someday we will all be able to quaff only the better lots? This guy is serious! Put aside the Enignma, but a beter swill is the 2000 Syrah (Les Cotes De L'Ouest)Try it! Course I am goofy!

[Innkeeper]

Don't have any of the '00s, but popped a '98 Estate Bottled. Shenandoah Valley, Zinfandel tonight. It lists at $28, but mine came in the sampler case. It was wonderful. Came in one of those heavy bottles, weighed in at 15.1% alcohol and 7.9 gm/ltr acidity. The minimal acidity prompted us to do it tonight with oven baked country ribs in rich barbeque sauce and salad. It was overipe and rich, rich, rich. Spicy and peppery additional richness with smooth tannin across the palate and a lingering finish. A super rich treat.

[Innkeeper]

Popped the first of six "new" '97 Noirs tonight. Have had it since last summer, and have no idea why we waited so long. It was as good, if not better than we remembered it. Would put it up against most anything from Southern Rhone except the highest level of CDPs. Matched with sauteed lamburgers tonight, and everything was wonderful.

[Innkeeper]

Did the same last night except broiled the lamburgers. Tried to mentally compare the Noir with GSM's from Oz. I think it is much more Old World than those. The Easton folks taut it as being CDP-like. I think it is more like an upscale CDRV or a Gigondas. At any rate; all was simply wonderful.

[Innkeeper]

Keeps getting better. Enjoyed another stunning bottle last night with roast leg of lamb, baguette dipped in OO, and salad. Recipe adapted from one of James Beard's.

ROAST LEG OF LAMB:

Large, whole, leg of lamb with fell and serious fat removed
Head of garlic
3 tbl olive oil
1 tsp Crushed dried rosemary
Salt and pepper mill

Peel garlic cloves and cut into slivers. Make small 1-inch deep incisions all over lamb, and push in garlic slivers. Massage oil into lamb with hand. Sprinkle with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Place lamb in shallow roasting pan with rack. Put a meat thermometer in meatiest part (not touching bone), and roast at 350º until it reaches 145º (ignoring what recommendation is printed on your thermometer). It will take about 2 hours. For gravy add ¼ cup four and 2 cups water for every ¼ cup drippings; bring to boil and simmer five minutes.

[Auburnwine]

My French is a little rusty, but it strikes me that marketing goes a long way to name a wine "Red Dirt Black."

[Innkeeper]

Taking another tack, popped a '97 Noir tonight with smoked baby back ribs with Carolina Red sauce. Out of this world; but didn't recognize where we were.

[Innkeeper]

Finished our last bottle of the '97s yesterday; sigh! Am I the only one; when there is just one more bottle of wine that may no longer be available or at the least very difficult to obtain again, you just don't want to open it. I have about half a dozen in that category. In this case there is one more coming in their mixed fall showcase, and more could be ordered, though a latter vintage.

The last '97 was terrific. Really savored those last few sips. Served it with mint marinated lamb sirloins: http://www.wines.com/ubb2/Forum39/HTML/000508.html

[Innkeeper]

We did pick up another '97 in the Fall Harvest Sampler Case. If I had looked carefully, would have seen the list price as the $25. This is $5 more than I paid for the same vintage in two previous orders. Now we have the "Spring Fete" price list. It lists the '99 for $25.

At any rate we popped the extra '97 (our very, very last one) tonight and enjoyed it throughly with broiled loin lambchops with aioli, and salad with blue cheese dressing. Very memorable.

Since it now costs as much as a "real" CDP, will probably not get anymore.

[Innkeeper]

We received one '99 ($25) in the Fall '04 Sampler Case. Popped it last night. It has not lost a beat from previous vintages. Just fantastic. Matched it with a leg of lamb again. This time it was one from the lamb that was raised for us this year. As such, it was not as clean as that you pick up a the local super. Haven't had to defel a leg of lamb in a loooong time.