Cotes-du-Right-On!

I dont get all the hoopla about Chateauneuf-du-pape. The wines suck. I rarely buy them, and if i do, its maybe a blanc, or something from a producer that I know doesnt make monstrous, over-ripe, alcoholic bombs. Think Clos des Brusquieres. I do love me some northern Rhone wines though. Syrah doesnt get any better than that. Mmm that unmistakeable white pepper. Cote-Rotie, Croze-Herm (and just Hermitage if i ever get the rare opp. to drink it), and most importantly, the neither-here-nor-there, Cotes-du-Rhone. Which i guess would be classified as southern Rhone more often than not. Oh well.

Right now ive got a $10 stiffy over a wine that i know nothing about. I dont know who makes it, i dont know where it comes from, I dont even know if it's a real place. All I know is it's flippin' delicious, and that's all that matters. And sometimes this is the best damned feeling in the whole wide world. Its just a stright up no frills good wine, that didnt slice my paycheck in half.

What is this faceless mostly grenache with a bit of Syrah wine? It's 2007 Les garrigues. Sue me. Im getting off on this wine. its fun, its effortless, its easy but not slutty, it lipsmackingly delicious.

Someone I know just told me about an old Beaucastel they drank. I guarantee that i am getting heaps more pleasure than they got when they drank that wine. It probably smelled like someone took a massive shit in the bottle and let it sit there for years. And that someone was a horse. And that's not terroir by the way, that's a dirty winery. Not only did they probably spend 50 times more than i did on this Les Garrigues, but they probably wouldn't have pretended to enjoy it as much if they didnt know it was a Beaucastel. Which goes back to me loving the fact that I am drinking a wine that i know absolutely nothing about. I'm not saying I love not knowing anything about it, i don't look for that when I choose a wine. I just love the outright ease and pleasure i get from it. It's effortless.

What is my point? It's just to shut up and drink. Stop being pretentious. Stop looking at the label. Stop looking at the score. Stop pretending its good wine. Because i guarantee you that if you put on a blindfold and drink it next to a les garrigues that you would join me in my $10 stiffy session i'm having over here. If people could do this more often the world would be a better place. Forget about whats on the label. Just look at what's inside the bottle.

Stay tuned to my next entry, where I will probably completely contradict myself.

-Bert