Domaine Vindemio - 2009 "Regain" syrah / grenache [France]

I read an article earlier this year in the Chicago Tribune by food and wine writer Michael Austin (who writes the fun "Pour Man" column) encouraging readers to enjoy, and not hoard, some of their prized wine. Conventional wisdom has that a wine connoisseur should collect as many fancy bottles as possible, guard them jealously, and only crack them open for monumentous occasions. I myself have been guilty of doing this; I think my wine collection hovers somewhere around 35 bottles and I'm always promising myself I'll save the nice ones for some unknown, future occasion. But as Austin notes, waiting too long might cause a great wine to get stale or past its prime.

So in the spirit of enjoying things sooner rather than later, here's one of the wines that have been part of my collection the longest - a 2009 red blend by Domaine Vindemio.

Produced in the Ventoux AOC of the Rhone wine region, this blend of 70% grenache and 30% syrah is fermented entirely in stainless steel vats and cement vessels. Concrete or cement tanks are nothing new in winemaking; they've been used for centuries as "neutral vessels": a way to age wine without imparting the kinds of flavors that wood barrels or even stainless steel does. They can also be custom-made quite thick, which is good for temperature control.

I picked this bottle up from Charles Fine Wines back in, I want to say, 2010. The buzz on the wine forums is that this wine is particularly rich and intense; makes sense for syrah and grenache. It was billed as a good candidate for aging. I've reviewed these grapes often so not going to discuss them extensively; however I have never cellared them (or really anything else) this long so let's see how eight years of careful aging has made its mark.

Interesting - this wine is surprisingly dry and has a mostly cherry and grape skin flavor - not super jammy or bright at all. I will say that the wine is quite balanced - I like that the cherry is not super strong but neither is the dryness. It finishes long, with lots of flavor left in the mouth after swallowing.

In my opinion, this wine is perhaps a bit too aged. It's still tasty, no question, but given the grape blends, I was expecting something juicier and jammier. If I had to do a blind taste test, I'd have said this was a Cabernet or a nice Zinfandel - not syrah and grenache. Without a fresh "reference bottle" it's impossible to say. So let this be a lesson - don't wait too long to drink your wine!