2018 Cellier des Dauphins Reserve

2018 Cellier des Dauphins Réserve

Image result for cellier des dauphins réserve côtes de rhône
Vintage: 2018
Region: Côtes du Rhône, France
Winery: A to Z Wineworks
Varietal: 60% Grenache, 40% Syrah
Price: $14.99 at Wegmans
Expert Rating: 97
My Rating: 96

Things to note: Highest rated wine on my list. Grapes picked at peak ripeness from very sunny areas. Really deep, ruby red color. "Astute élevage"- you may see this word, élevage, on occasion when drinking French wines. It's the term for the progression of wine from the beginning of fermentation to bottling. So, "astute élevage" would mean that the wine had a great fermentation period.

The Review: My apologies for a bit of a delay in this post, it's midterm exam season and I'm studying believe it or not. This wine is pretty crazy. As I mentioned, it's the highest-rated wine on my list with a rating of 97 points. It's also pretty complex, which can sometimes get really overwhelming and cause everything to meld into one "blob" of flavor. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wrestle with this one, so let's try and walk through it together. Right off that bat, if you get anywhere near the glass you get smacked with spiced plum and cherry. This honestly is where I got caught up and had to keep trying to find other notes. There was something that I couldn't pin down but eventually came to a creamy, buttery, croissant-like smell. Kind of like walking into a bakery. It was really delicate though, not very forward. After a few more tries, I started getting a little bit of tobacco and leather (similar profiles), which are a little bit of a spicy smell- think cigar, not cigarette. 

 On the first taste, that initial smell of cherry and plum cuts through again. This is definitely the dominant flavor profile of the wine. There's also a little black currant and some of that dried tobacco/leather towards the finish of the wine. In my opinion, this finish makes the wine special. Its got a long, smooth finish with a low to moderate tannin quality. In normal language, it coats the tongue and lingers, but doesn't cause the lip-smacking that heavy tannin wines do. There's also that creamy and buttery element that I mentioned. It's really quite a nice finish and is super easy to drink. This is definitely a nice, fullish red wine that can serve as a nice introduction into some more complex wines. If you don't care about any of that, it's really tasty and isn't aggressively tannin-y. 

bere solo vino buono,

db

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