Château de Sylvabelle Bandol 2009 Pizza Wine

Château de Sylvabelle Bandol 2009 ideal QPR 'Pizza Wine'

Midweek dinner, Linda doctored up a frozen pizza with tomatoes, olives, onions and other trimming that we oven baked on the grill for a very tasty enjoyable experience. I pulled from the cellar a suitable 'pizza wine' for applicable pleasant drinking, a Château de Sylvabelle from Bandol in the Provencal region of southern France. 

Considering the sources, both the pizza and the accompanying wine exceeded expectations for a very pleasant and tasty dinner, amplified by a perfect spring alfresco evening on the deck. 

Château de Sylvabelle Bandol 2009

I believe we received this wine as a gift in a holiday gift box several years ago and have been sitting on it in our cellar waiting for a suitable occasion such as tonight to drink. 

This wine is from the Bandol appellation, named after the so named commune in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. 

The Bandol wine region is located along the coast east of the city of Marseille and Cassis, towards the city of Toulon. It is one of Provence's most recognized wine regions. The Bandol AOC covers the production of 8 communes.

The area is a popular tourist destination with idyllic climate and proximity to Côte d'Azur Mediteranean beaches. We drove through the area as we traversed the coastal region during a weekend visit to St, Tropez while we were visiting the region and staying in the city of Aix-en-Provence.

The terroir of the region consists of silicon & limestone soils and a warm, coastal climate which are ideally suited for the late ripening Mourvèdre grape, which is the major varietal of the region. Mourvèdre must account for at least 50% of a blended wine bearing the Appellation Controllee (AOC) designation. It is typically supplemented by Grenache, Cinsault, and perhaps a few other grapes.

Mourvedre is a late ripening, darkly colored, thick skinned berry that produces long, conical shaped bunches. The grape reaches its best level of ripeness in warm, sunny, dry and even hot climates.

The true home for Mourvedre is Spain, where more than 61,000 hectares of vines are planted. After Spain, France is next country with the largest amount of planted Mourvedre vines.

In the southwest of France, Mourvedre is the third most popular grape in the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation. But third is a long way from first as it occupies less than 5% of the plantings in the Southern Rhone Valley.

When used as a blending grape, Mourvedre adds tannin and alcohol to wines as well as red fruits, cassis, spice, olives, herbs, pepper, sweetness, structure and depending on the producer, it could add a gamey, pleasant barnyard or animalistic character to the wine. Mourvedre is the perfect grape to blend with Grenache and Syrah.

Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-topics/wine-educational-questions/grapes-for-wine-making-flavor-characteristics-explained/mourvedre-wine-grape-flavor-character-history/

Mourvedre is a late ripening, darkly colored, thick skinned berry that produces long, conical shaped bunches. The grape reaches its best level of ripeness in warm, sunny, dry and even hot climates.

The true home for Mourvedre is Spain, where more than 61,000 hectares of vines are planted. After Spain, France is next country with the largest amount of planted Mourvedre vines.

In the southwest of France, Mourvedre is the third most popular grape in the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation. But third is a long way from first as it occupies less than 5% of the plantings in the Southern Rhone Valley.

When used as a blending grape, Mourvedre adds tannin and alcohol to wines as well as red fruits, cassis, spice, olives, herbs, pepper, sweetness, structure and depending on the producer, it could add a gamey, pleasant barnyard or animalistic character to the wine. Mourvedre is the perfect grape to blend with Grenache and Syrah.

Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-topics/wine-educational-questions/grapes-for-wine-making-flavor-characteristics-explained/mourvedre-wine-grape-flavor-character-history/

The Cellar Insider writes about Mourvedre, "Mourvedre is a late ripening, darkly colored, thick skinned berry that produces long, conical shaped bunches. The grape reaches its best level of ripeness in warm, sunny, dry and even hot climates.'

"The true home for Mourvedre is Spain, where more than 61,000 hectares of vines are planted. After Spain, France is next country with the largest amount of planted Mourvedre vines.'

"In the southwest of France, Mourvedre is the third most popular grape in the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation. But third is a long way from first as it occupies less than 5% of the plantings in the Southern Rhone Valley.'

"When used as a blending grape, Mourvedre adds tannin and alcohol to wines as well as red fruits, cassis, spice, olives, herbs, pepper, sweetness, structure and depending on the producer, it could add a gamey, pleasant barnyard or animalistic character to the wine. Mourvedre is the perfect grape to blend with Grenache and Syrah.'

This blend is popular in the Southern Rhone as well as Australia and is often referred to as a "G-S-M" for Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre.

The Wine Cellar Insider continues, "Mourvedre first gained popularity in Spain where it is known as Monastrell. At some point during the middle ages, vines were brought to the Rhone Valley. Prior to the attack of Phylloxera, it was the most popular grape in the region."

I believe we received this wine as a gift from our friends in the south of France whom we visited during our trip there to Aix-en-Provence, when we had a delightful authentic Provencal dinner with them at their home in Meyrargues. This wine-dine experience is chronicled in these pages in a blogpost from the trip, Four days in Provence - Aix - Meyrargues.

It is written about Bandol wines, they tend to be tough in their youth, a good Bandol needs time, like a Barolo or Bordeaux, a good 10 years of aging will soften the brutishness, and allow the true charracter and profile to reveal itself. When I opened this at a dozen years of age, I worried about its condition due to its ageability. It was likely at the apex of its drinking window, showing no diminution from aging whatsoever. 

Easy pleasant drinking, ruby colored, medium bodied with dark berry fruits accented by notes of licorice (nearby village Cassis), herbs, tobacco and earth. 

Dr Vinny of Wine Spectator writes about herbs de Provence, "There are a bunch of bushy, fragrant plants that grow wild there, such as juniper, thyme, rosemary and lavender, and garrigue refers to the sum of them. Think herbes de Provence, or a mix of fresh minty-herbal notes with more pungent, floral fragrances."

Look for Bandol as a high QPR - quality to price ratio, modestly priced every day drinking wine to serve with hearty food, what I call a "pizza wine". Tonight it was an ideal selection. 

RM 87 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1366446

Liked this so much, relatively speaking, researched and found Binny's has four bottles of one Bandol nearby. Went out and picked up some 2016 La Bastide Blanche Bandol Mourvèdre Blend. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2714762

Stay tuned.