Château de la Rivière Fronsac 2010 – the first wine, which will be examined on this blog. Of course without taking the “From the drawer” series under consideration, which I invite to. Here is my
Château de la Rivière Fronsac 2010 – the first wine, which will be examined on this blog. Of course without taking the “From the drawer” series under consideration, which I invite to. Here is my tasting note about this French wine from Bordeaux…
It was nice friday evening with hoarfrost outside the window. All the ligths were switched off and the wood was burning down in the fireplace. When I was contemplating this moment, I realized, that it would be nice to have a glass of wine. This is how a tasting of Château de la Rivière from 2010 – French wine from Bordeaux region started. It was red dry wine from AOC appelation, created by Château de la Rivière winery as a bordeaux blend with 15% of alcohol.
Before I got back to my girlfriend waiting by the fireplace, I took a moment to examine esthetic value of this wine. It had intense red color of strawberry with a slight tint of raspberry. The ring was slightly raised, glitter was high. Tears of this wine were thick and dense, and were running down very slowly. However the first thing that suprised me a lot was the level of clarity – lack of clarity to be more precised, because of sediment. It was subdued, almost hazy. This is all I could say about the look of this wine.
I came back to my love. First moment, in the light of the fireplace, we spent on delighting the aroma. Nice, but strong tones of wood and red fruits, slightly stronger cherry, blackberries, strong tanned leather and dried tobacco – this is what we felt in our noses. Intensity of aroma was high; even with the predominance of tanned leather and tobacco, balance was perfect. We did not feel the smell of alcohol at all. Durability of aroma was also on a high level, even after several minutes it was still intense as it was at the beginning.
After a few long minutes, there was the moment to taste the wine. Attack was warming up the lips and the tip of the tongue, slight sharpness was present from the beginning. The texture of wine was rough and a little sharper, considering the dynamics – it was static. Tastes I could feel (and most of them felt my girlfriend) were the tones of raspberry, stronger blackberry, blueberry, sharper tone of green pepper, wood – roasted oak, dark chocolate and tobacco. The alcohol was also pretty well hidden, like in aroma. The equilibrium was preserved well. Balans was also good – sweetness, tannins and acidity, although the last one was high, were working well together. Wine had nicely emphasized character, it was not meant to be drunk fast – it was deep and very pleasent. Each of taste had it own place. It was full, sincere, did not make the impression of shallowness. In my opinion it was the best time to drink this wine – everything was composed perfectly, it looked like it was the ideal moment. Finish was long, over a minute, corresponding with the taste, also delicious. Acidity of this wine was very high. Sweetness on the low level, more like a character of red and forest fruits with tone of tobacco and wood. What suprised me the most were tannins on a very low level. Weaker than I could expect from this type of wine. Dispite the low level, fortunately they were very nice.
I did not create a tasting note for a wine for a pretty long time and I must admit, this was a nice comeback. The tasting was very charming – wine perfectly fitted to the evening with my love by the fireplace. Slight tones of wood and tanned leather were intensifying that special character of the moment. Wine was pretty good for me, almost very good. Could it be treated as a strong sample of Bordeaux – I have some doubts. My girlfriend had a very interesting impression with taste. She was convincingly saying, that she feels high level of bitterness. For her it was disturbing amount. I was very curious, what was the reason for that. It turned out, that just a moment before she tried this wine, she was drinking the mix of kale and celery. Very bad example of food pairing… trust me. However I tried to find out, if there is any mark of this bitterness, she was talking about. No results… I had a pleasure of drinking this wine and I claim, that my note below is justified. This wine should be drunk slowly. It is nice and worth a moment of reflection. However I would not say, that it is worth comming back for any cost – if there will be a chance, thats fine, but fighting and looking for this in every place – would not say so… It would be a perfect companion to a calm and relaxing evening.
Note: 73/100.
A few words of comment to topic of kale and celery. I intentionally mentioned it in the summary of tasting note. Unfortunately this combination with dry wine of Bordeaux had to end up with catastrophe. This time – with unpleasent bitterness of spoiled fruites. However I think that it was a nice tasting experience. Personally I would say, that it is a good idea to realize, what food pairing is in the context of wine. Both in positive and negative way. The positive version is what we can expect on almost every tasting in each restaurant. However, about the negative one… it starts to be interensting… Like during our evening by the fireplace. I invite you to experiment with different combinations of wine and food, also with those that are looking like a bad idea. The effects can sometimes be very surprising…