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What We Say 2005 Corbieres
If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Sign up for our Daily Dispatch email above to be the first to know about our wines. The wines are great. Sometimes greater than great, as is the case with today’s wine from Château le Bouïs.
Exclusive Wine Alert
This weekend’s wine selection is an extremely rare and exclusive wine from one of our favorite AOCs in the South of France. The Wine Spies is be the only retail outlet for this wine in the United States.
TOP SECRET SPY DEAL
Free Ground Shipping on orders of six or more bottles PLUS a Free Copy of The Instant Wine Connoisseur (while supplies last). This is a great book that is full of excellent tasting information and recipes that compliment the various wines described. A $20 value – yours free with your order today. But act fast supplies are limited! Use the promotion code SPYNOW during checkout.
Mission Codename: Sunset on the Mediterranean
Operative: Agent White
Objective: Seek out some exceptional gems from France’s largest wine producing region.
Mission Status: Accomplished!
Current Winery: Château le Bouïs
Wine Subject: 2005 Corbières
Winemaker: Pierre Vialard
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Dark purple, almost black with an slight inky quality with slow moving thick tears after swirled.
Smell – Mild, sweet and ripe dark fruit including cherries, blackberries that evolves as it opens to include some spice and an earthy quality.
Feel – Cool, smooth and wet initially, then at mid-palate, the tannins kick in to show a solid and complex structure.
Taste – Dry and subtle fruit with hints of spice, earthiness and slight oak and cedar flavors, as this wine opens up additional flavors of creamy sweet raspberries emerge.
Finish -A long smooth finish where the incorporated flavors fade and meld nicely to invite another sip.
Conclusion – Cheers to winemaker Pierre Vialard on this exceptional wine. Great balance of fruit, spice, earthiness, this wine complements great meals or can be enjoyed by itself. This wine is a real pleasure to drink and shows strong varietal characteristics as well as an elegance rarely found in wines at this price point. This wine gets full Wine Spies kudos!
Backgrounder:
The Languedoc-Roussillon, in the south of France, straddles the Mediterranean Sea and sits in the shadows of the Pyrenees mountains and stretches north-eastward to the Rhone river. The region is the top producing wine region in all of France with nine major appellations and dozens of sub appellations.
Corbières, one of the primary AOCs, was elevated to full AOC status in 1985 and is known form producing red wines of excellent color that are full-bodied, with perfectly balanced fruit and spice.
Considered, drinking wines (enjoy within 2-5 years), wines from this region must have their primary grape (Grenache, Syrah, Lladoner, Mourvedre, etc.) be at least 50% of the blend with the other grapes (Carignan, Mourvedre, Picpoul Noir, etc.) having a maximum of 20% of the blend. This wine is 60% Syrah and 20% each of Carignan and Mourvedre.
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of the seaside Château le Bouïs can be seen in this satellite photo.
What the Winery Says
Château Le Bouïs
The Wine Spies have been able to secure an additional allocation just for our operatives… Only a few cases of this wine are left – be sure to place your order now if you want some of this great wine… Cheers!
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About This Wine:
This wine is a blend of Syrah (60%), Carignan (20%) and Mourvedre (20%) aged in barrles for ten months. Concentrated and full-bodied, it has a nose of dark fruit, liquorices and spices. Long and luscious in the mouth, it shows flavors of black fruit and spices. Enjoy this wine through 2010.
Usually, Château le Bouïs AOC Corbières is made from Grenache blended with Carignan and Syrah (this year is primarily Syrah). This blending produces a fruity wine with generous aromas of little red fruits and cherry. This wine is rich and combines aromatic freshness and elegance. It is a wine to drink now.
The Vineyard:
The 40 hectares vineyard is located in the amazing surroundings of the Mediterranean Corbières. Facing south on the seaside,the vineyard enjoys the full influence of the very nearby Mediterranean sea which favours smooth ripening.
The Vineyard is known for Carignan, red Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah for the reds and rosés; white Grenache, Roussanne and Bourboulenc for the white wines are hand harvested.
The reds offer delicate aromas with hues of read fruits, thyme, garrigue and liquorice. For the whites, the harmony of the aromas of vine peach, apricot, mint and white flowers accompany a long and elegant palate with very little acidity.
About The Winery:
Some places are like books. Those who can read drive you through the place. Alexis and Albane are among these readers. When they fell in love with this little piece of paradise in the Mediterranean Corbières, they revealed it to non readers. Their enthusiasm and generosity, gave life and taste to this forgotten vineyard, offering their guests the amazing beauty of the true Mediterranean setting.
When they bought the hamlet, only the wine-making cellar was in function. Today, new places have been restored. A refined guest housewas created in the mansion and in an old building. A jazz, wine and tapas bar was created near the tasting cellar. All these new places are fully part of the spirit of the Bouïs, although Alexis and Albane fully dedicate to the creation of their wines and new vintages, they know that welcoming guests as friends is essential to the spirit of the Bouïs.
About The Winemaker:
Pierre Vialard, 29 years old, the oenologist of the Bouis:
“I take as much interest in the quality of the grape and the beauty of the vineyard as in the quality and beauty of the wine. I am happy here, I have decided to live in this area, I have fondness for the Mediterranean taste of great southern wines. I love giving them character, aromatic power, it is for me a great pleasure to make them… and to taste them.”
Very young, amateur and enthusiastic for wine, Pierre, without any family wine link, decides to graduate as enologist from the the University of Toulouse. Two years of biology, a state degree in oenology, he first worked in Roussillon, then joined Château Le Bouis in 2000, a year before Alexis and Albane arrived. New owners, new responsibilities, Pierre Vialard runs a permanent team of 3 persons, 15 to 20 persons during the wine-harvest. He controls the work from the grape to the final produce.
