A sleeper, under-the-radar wine consumers should be seeking out is the 2009 Panorama Vin de Pays, an intriguing, stainless steel-vinified and aged blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Grenache and Syrah. Brasseries, bistros, and consumers looking for a red wine to serve slightly chilled will love this fruity effort. Filled with personality, it can be enjoyed over the next year. The Usseglios told me that 2009 was a very stressful vintage because of the lack of rain that caused some vineyards (especially those planted with Grenache) to shut down. Producers who harvested too quickly had issues with their wines. Moreover, fermentations were troublesome with lots of volatile acidity as well as unresolved residual sugar. In short, this vintage required very careful surveillance/babysitting than most top vintages do.
One of my favorite stops on my trips to the southern Rhone is at Domaine Pierre Usseglio where brothers Jean-Pierre and Thierry Usseglio have accomplished special things. A new state-of-the-art tasting room has been added, somewhat unusual in Chateauneuf du Pape where little has changed in the three decades I have been tasting there. However, the small, discrete Usseglio tasting room would never be compared with tasting rooms that exist in Bordeaux and California.
Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173
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