Showing posts with label Chapoutier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chapoutier. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz 2019

Another quiet Tuesday night at home, we settled in to watch our time-phased recording of “The Voice” with a selection of artisan cheeses and bold sipping Shiraz wine - much like last week as featured in this post Long Shadows Sequel Syrah w/ Focaccia & Murray’s Cheese

Like last week, we had a selection of Murray’s and other cheeses, fresh whole berry jams, and fresh cut Chive herbs, with toasted sourdough bread. 


Tonight our cheeses included aged blue cheese, Gruyère, Beemster Swiss, aged white cheddar and aged sharp cheddar, 




For a wine accompaniment we pulled from the cellar this big bold everyday Australian Shiraz.

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz 2019

This label is from the partnership of two global beverage heavyweights, global wine producer and distributor Terlato and French based global producer Chapoutier

Suburban Chicago based, family owned, Terlato started as a retail store in 1938 and has grown into one of the world’s leading importers, marketers and producers of luxury beverage brands. Their global portfolio includes more than 85 fine wine and artisanal spirit brands from world-class producers in more than a dozen countries and is the leading fine wine & spirits marketer in the U.S. Some of their well known brands include Chimney Rock, Rutherford Hill and Rochioli in the US and I’ll Poggionne, Feudi di San Gregorio in Italy. Notably, they are the exclusive distributor of ultra-premium Gaia wines in North America and the portfolio also includes Champagne Roederer,Joseph Drouhin and Louis Latour.

Maison Chapoutier, founded in 1808, has vineyards throughout France, primarily the northern and southern Rhône river valleys, as well as in Portugal, Australia and Spain and produces iconic brands with over two hundred labels.

The Terlato & Chapoutier partnership dates back to 1987. Michel Chapoutier joined forces with the Terlato family (the company’s American distributor) in 2000. This domain brand is the company’s third project in Australia, and the second domain in Victoria, to the north-east of Melbourne. 

This is a single vineyard designated wine from the Pyrenees appellation in the Western Victoria sub-region of the Victoria wine region of Australia. While Victoria may be Australia’s second smallest state, it’s home to over 600 cellars, the largest number of individual wineries. 

Not to be confused with the Pyrenees region bordering southern France and Spain, the Australian appellation is the most prolific of three appellations in the sub-region, and is home to 50+ wineries that produce over 600 wines. 

The project is in the Central Highlands region in Western Victoria, Australia, about 198 kilometres west of Melbourne, on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera in what is known as the Grampians wine region.

The ares’s proximity between 100 -200 kilometres to the Southern Ocean provides a Mediterranean climate with cooling influence during summer.

This label, Lieu dit is a French term referring to a specific part of a vineyard or region recognized for its own topographic or historical specificities, commonly used in Alsace, Burgundy, the Rhône Valley. It is a bit disingenuous for Chapoutier to use it outside of France. 

The Grampians wine region’s primary variety is Shiraz. The region also produces Sparking Shiraz, Riesling, the best performing white variety in the region, along with Chardonnay that can also be found. Cabernet Sauvignon is found in some of the older vineyards, and Pinot Noir is starting to gain a foothold as a straight varietal. In recent years, Italian varietals such as Pinot Grigio (or Gris), Sangiovese annd Dolcetto are making their mark with a growing legion of fans.

The region is know as Shiraz Central in the Victoria Highlands, and it is grown throughout the region in the towns and sub-appellations of Ballarat, Bendigo, Goulburn Valley, Grampians, Heathcote, Macedon Ranges, Pyrenees, Strathbogie Ranges, Sunbury and Upper Goulburn.

Scattered among the old gold mining towns, 250 wineries benefit from long sunny days and cool nights that produce a cool, spicy Australian shiraz, notable for their complexity and finesse.

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz 2019

Winemaker notes - Deep ruby. Highly aromatic with black fruit aromas (black cherry and black currant) and undertones of dark chocolate, white pepper and eucalyptus. Explosive black berry and black plum flavors with perfectly matched, elegant tannins that give the wine a long, lasting aftertaste. Full bodied and rich. A treat to drink now and will age well for 7-10 years.

This label is widely distributed and can be found priced from $10 in special sales, all the way to $40. At its moderate prices it provides great QPR - Quality Price Ratio for every day sipping.

Dark inky garnet colored, full bodied, complex, concentrated, wild black berry and black currant fruits with notes of earth, spice and hints of black tea, tar, pepper and bitter dark chocolate, with moderate tannins on a long persistent finish. 

RM 88 points. 



Monday, July 22, 2019

La Presqu'Ile Restaurant à Bédarrides Vaucluse France

La Presqu'Ile Restaurant à Bédarrides, Vaucluse, France

Following our private tour and tasting at Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe. Châteauneuf-du-Pape, proprietor Andre Brunier arranged for us a perfect lunch table at a picturesque local restaurant nearby in the small village of Bédarrides, located at the entry to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, equidistant (12km) from Avignon, Carpentras and Orange. 

This was magnamimous given it was an extraordinary dining experience despite the fact they didn't have on offer his wine (s). 

The restaurant Le'Presquile, was just down the road, very close to the Vieux Telegraph estate, cited on the circular road that traverses the circular shaped town at the confluence of the river Ouvèze, in a setting opposite the village, that feels like a small island. 
 
The village is accessed via an adjacent postcard worthy historic old bridge, built in 1647. 
 

The restaurant opened for lunch and we were but two diners giving us the option of sitting in-doors, or outside on a wonderful vine covered terrace overlooking the river. 

The setting, food and wine service could not have been more delightful. 

We had skirt/flank steak, beef burgers and salads. With our entrees we ordered from the winelist this St Josef Northern Rhone Syrah. 

M. Chapoutier St. Joseph Deschants Syrah 2017

The Saint-Joseph appellation extends around fifty kilometres on the right bank of the River Rhone, from Chavanay in the north to Guilherand-Granges, near Valence, in the south. The mainly-east facing vineyards are planted on the steep slopes of gneiss and local granite schist, occasionally coated with lenses of loess. This variety of substrates results in wines of "complexity, volume and tautness in our Deschants wine", according to the producer. 

The vineyard was originally established in the areas surrounding Tournon : Mauves, Saint-Jean de Muzols et Lemps. ” Mauves wines ” were higly reputed in the last century even as far as Russia, on the Tsars’ dining table. Two sites had already gained respect at that time.  Saint-Joseph hill-side, a parcel of land owned today by maison Chapoutier, and that of Saint-Épine. 

The soil is granitic and slightly acidic, on the right bank of the Rhône on the foothills of the Massif Central. Chapoutier own the parcel of Saint-Joseph, situated between Mauves and Tournon, which has given its name to the appellation.

This was 100% Syrah sourced from the southern sector from Arras down to Mauves, 40% estate fruit and the remainder 60% purchased, Aged 60% in vat and 40% oak casks for 12-18 months. Production was 170,000 bottles.

Wine Advocate rated this wine 91-93 to points. 

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, concentrated black cherry and blueberry fruits with notes of floral, cassis, olive tapenade, cracked pepper, spice and black tea, with soft, ripe tannins and lingering on the finish. 

RM 91 points.   

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3331539

https://www.chapoutier.com/en/shop/deschants/2017/50 

https://lapresquile.business.site/