French Reds and Cheese

Ange: Hi! Everyone. Welcome to Le Gourmet TV. I am Ange from iYellow Wine Club and we are here with Taylor at Reds, the Sommelier here to go through some regional pairing. We have got French wine, French cheese. Taylor this looks awesome. This looks awesome. Taylor: Great. Ange: I don't say no to cheese or wine, so I mean. Taylor: Okay. So we will start with the wine. This is the La Baronne Corbiere. Now this is a family owned vineyard Corbieres in area within Languedoc which is very, very south end of France, okay in the Basque region as it were. And it's a Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre blend that's most wines from this area are. This family has owned this vineyard and land for three generations. So I really, really like that. They haven't commercialized the vineyard at all, very family owned all biodynamic and organic farming, so they are giving back to the earth which is a really great thing as well. Ange: Very eco-friendly, yeah. Taylor: Yeah. And this is their entry level wines, you can actually pick this wine up for $120 in a lot of -- Ange: In liquor stores. Taylor: No, this one is actually only available through The Vine who you can contact through Rob Groh, so it would be www.robgroh.com. Okay, it's the Rob Groh Wine Agency and basically, this is a south France pairing. So this is also from the Basque region of France and this is a Corbiere from the Languedoc region within the Basque region of France. Okay, so really nice pairing, red wine with a firm cheese. Ange: And sort of the great grape in there. Taylor: Grenache, Syrah and the red. So you them up and called them GSM right. So this would go into the GSM category. Ange: So looking at a blended red wine from France, same thing a lot like we are going to talk about Italy. It's sort of what initial blend with some, obviously some grapes coming out a little bit stronger than others but a blended red wine matching well with the local food. Taylor: Yeah, and that's what's great about French wines is I find in Australia, for example, when you start blending a lot of grapes together, the wines really lose their sense of varietal expression and maybe even a little bit their sense of taste. Whereas these French wines have been around for generations, and generations and have always been blends. So it's not about the grapes, these French wines are really, really about a sense of place. Ange: Right, and family. Taylor: Yeah. Ange: Sense of place and family, and this family produces this type of red wine, that's the favorite profile that they really like to express. Taylor: Yeah and often to get that French experience, a lot of people I think, you know, wow I have got to buy a 95 Mourvèdre and blow the budget of $1,000, minimum $200. Ange: And this is under $20. Taylor: This is under $20 right, so this is a great chance to try, a great French wine that goes amazingly with cheese and it's under $20. Ange: And to drink alone, it doesn't even have to go with food and that's the one thing about French wine I always like to tell people is the fact that you know those who assume French wine is expensive but great and there is a lot of French wine that's really great still and not expensive and you can find it under $20. But the assumption is that French wine has this price tag of being very high when realistically going and trying a bottle of French wine you can do for very easy little price, yeah. Taylor: Yeah. I am always worried that somebody -- France is going to come and shoot me when I say this but to me the South of France is very much the new world side of France. Their grapes that people are using to identify with, the wines are a little more fruity, a little more full to get go and they are approachable and they are huge, right. This is an 06, we are drinking right now. Ange: Great, excellent. Well, let's try the wine. You can see that it is sort of a medium to full body, it's not overly fully bodied. It seems very approachable in both the smell and well I get to try it, but it looks like -- it's not like it's going to be approachable in the taste. Taylor: You have got Grenache there, I have given you that nice flash fruity character and then you can smell the syrah in there, just the spiciness in there too, isn't there, the spice and -- Ange: There is a lot of spicy on the palate but really very enjoyable because it doesn't leave your mouth really dry, it just leaves it well coated with a nice flavor to it that's what I really enjoy about this wine, and it's not like puckering your mouth dry and you are wondering what you are going to cleanse that down with. Just a very enjoyable one. Alright, well that cheese looks great, we should dive in. Taylor: Yeah let's get into that. Ange: Cheers. Taylor: Cheers.