Pierre Amadieu - 2008 Roulepierre Cotes du Rhone (France)

Another wine from the archives - I had this bottle in my cellar for many years and decided to serve it during dinner at my father's a few weeks ago. It's a 2008 Pierre Amadieu Cotes du Rhone, grown in the Rhone region of France (as luck might have it.) The Rhone winemaking region, which stretches hundreds of miles across France, is home to many AOCs and types of grape. The term Cotes du Rhone applies to chiefly red wine (black grenache) but can also apply to white and rosé made in this region. I've reviewed a couple of examples from this type of wine here on the blog in years past.

Aroma is of cherries and bright fruit with some alcohol thrown in. Smells pretty good, letting it sit for longer than usual since I have a feeling it's going to be super delicate. This is due to my knowledge of the vintage (Cotes du Rhone can be delicate) and also the aging time (7 years), which can be long for certain vintages.

Nice color to the wine - it's a little darker in person but the phone camera actually captures the color well.

I was pleased by this wine - it's got a very refined texture, with well-developed tastes and distinct flavors of cherry and blackberry. However - and here's the problem - those flavors are not bright as it could or should be, most likely due to aging. I think some of the flavors that could have been strong and bright or were too faint to be appreciated. It's delicate, which is fine, but that requires a balance I think. Glad I had it, paired with cast-iron cowboy steaks and homemade, from-scratch garlic mashed potatoes. The food didn't overpower it, a thought which crossed my mind as I saw those delicious cuts of meat sizzling on the cast-iron plates!