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Alain Jaume Les Valats 2005 Vintage: 2005 Colour: Red Origin: France - Côtes du Rhône - Méridionales - Rasteau AOC Alc % by Vol: 14.5% 6 X 750ml 113CHF Jean-Michel Deluc: Robert Parker:

Our opinion

This wine should really be decanted to soften its structure and bring out its superbly fruity and spicy composition. You can also imagine that this wine will keep very nicely in the cellar for a few years to come. And would be perfect served with generous Mediterranean cuisine.

Description

Watch the video of our sommelier's perfect recipe to go with it>>

Odile and Alain Jaume have been at their profession since 1979 with the creation of the "Domaine du Grand Veneur". The plots of land are exposed on hillsides and plateaus and some of the vines 90 years old. In the last few years they have completed their harvest by buying grapes from neighbouring estates in order to create a healthy business-growers relationship which has been hailed by the press for its quality and regularity, that the wine critic Robert Parker has called "very impressive. This Rasteau is made from this mixture of grapes (90% Grenache, 5% Mourvèdre and 5% Syrah from the rocky hillsides). It is then vinified traditionally before being matured in vats.

Tips on service

• Conservation: ready now but will improve
• At its best in: 2008
• To decant: 2 hours
• Serve at 16°

Food and wine matching

Petits farcis niçois, lamb cooked with anchovies, duck in a black cherry sauce, duck with and olive and fig chutney, side of beef in a béarnaise sauce, and once mature, casseroles and stews will be a perfect match, as well as young cheeses in its youth but ripe ones once mature.

Tasting notes

By Jean Michel Deluc : Master Sommelier

Eye - This wine has a most wonderful velvety and shimmering ruby-like colour with crimson and violet nuances. The cochineal colour towards the rim of the glass shows that the wine has started to mature. Its is glossy, limpid and the current concentration appears to be medium, with a very attractive colour.
Nose - The nose, is above all very elegant but equally has a lot of power. The framework of the wine is very sappy, dominated by the aromas of pitted fruits, black cherries and prunes as well as the black fruits of blackcurrants and blackberries. You can also sense rather than smell on the fist nose the perfumes of the aging process, pepper, tobacco, smoke and gun powder. After having been given a few moments to breathe the wine becomes sunnier, with the same fruity scents but stronger, the peppery minty tones and the liquorice give the character a very fresh feeling. The nose has a wonderful deepness that is much richer than your average Côtes du Rhône Villages.
Palate - The attack is soft, smooth and velvety, carried by the black fruits of the nose. Then the youth of the wine takes over with its lively refreshing structure, based around the flavours of mint and liquorice. These quickly give way to the fine tannins from the ripe grape skins. One gets the impression that the fruitiness of the wine is due to the Grenache with the relief and structure coming from the Mourvedre and the Shiraz. The result is a wonderfully sappy wine with power and amplitude, much as a wine should be from its neighbouring appellation Vallée du Rhône Méridionale.