Do You Come Here Often?

Hi, everybody, and Happy Holidays.  Welcome back to Cèpage et Cuisine, Brian’s and Mary’s wine and food blog.

This is the first of what we hope will be approximately weekly posts on specific wines or wine types, sort of a wine of the week.  This week we’re highlighting two wines.  The first is La Vieille Ferme, one of the labels under the umbrella of the Perrin family that makes Chateau de Beaucastel in the Southern Rhone Valley of France. 

The red wine of La Vieille Ferme is from the Côtes du Ventoux, usually a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignane, and Cinsault.  The white is from Côtes du Luberon and is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Ugni Blanc, and Roussanne.  They also produce a rose’ of Cinsault, Grenache, and Syrah.  The wines are all delightful and usually priced around $10.  They are widely available at any good wine merchant.  While they are entirely drinkable and serve well as a sort of house wine, they are inexpensive enough to use as cooking wine in recipes that call for dry red or white wines.  The La Vieille Ferme red has notes of red fruit, minerals, and pleasant earthiness.

The other wine you see here is a Petite Sirah, produced by Christopher Creek Winery in the Russian River Valley area of California, near Healdsburg.  Let me tell you, there is nothing petite about Petite Sirah.  The grapes are small, but the skins are thick and the wine is highly structured with immense tannins and intense fruit flavors of blackberry, boysenberry, plum, and spice notes, great for comfort food like burgers, nachos, pizza, and hearty soups around the holidays.  Mary even put a little Christmas bell on there to celebrate the season.  Christopher Creek is not widely distributed, especially here in the eastern U.S., but a good wine merchant will have other good selections of Petite Sirah for you to enjoy.  The Christopher Creek wine is $30, but good examples of Petite Sirah are available for under $20.

That's our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Let us know what wines you are enjoying during the holiday season and the kinds of food you pair with your wine.  In the meantime, keep checking back here at Cèpage et Cuisine for more posts.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

Brian♥Mary