Sunday, February 18, 2007

2000 Chateau Bouscasse

Once again, my quirky interest in tannat and Alain Brumont takes me back to the French region of Madiran tonight, where Tannat is the leading grape varietal.

Chateau Bouscasse and Chateau Montus are both owned by Alain Brumont, and these wines are probably the stars of the appelation. Both Chateaux make an upscale wine (Bouscasse Vielles Vignes and Montus Cuvee Prestige - one of my all time favourite wines), but tonight's wine is the least expensive of Brumont's offerings.

The 2000 Bouscasse was a nice ruby red, that started with earthy, spicy, meaty scents, as well as some blackberries. Dry, velvety tannins and spicy fruit coated the tongue. Awkward at first, a few hours in the decanter softened this wine up nicely. Likely a terrific pairing with steak, it worked very well tonight with a Domino's Meat Lovers pizza.
Score: 16/20
Price: C$21

While above my C$20 "Value" limit, it is so close and so good that I had to add the value tag below.

6 comments:

David said...

A true wine lover, pairing it with pizza instead of beer! I too usually do that.

Joe said...

Agreed, beer is a rare event these days. I did another Pizza tasting in a previous post, with Madiran as well, but Italian was better!

Anonymous said...

I am a Madiran lover too. My favorite is Chateau du Perron. Sadly 2001 was the last vintage. Thanks for the mention of 2000 Bouscasse. I should give that a try.

Joe said...

Hi Andrew. Great to hear! I just checked, and the Perron is not available locally. Bouscasse, Montus, Aydie-Laplace are all great, but an Uruguayan Tannat (try Pisano) could also do in a fix. Cheers!

Unknown said...

Great blog....I am a wine lover form Waterloo Ontario.
Check out my blog at vintagebottletalk.blogspot.com

Joe said...

Hi David. Ok, are you from Kitchener or Waterloo (your profile says Kitchener, you tell me Waterloo)? Very important - Joe is a K-W boy. Love the stuff you are tasting, I will keep an eye on your site. Cheers!