2007 Chateau Sainte Eulalie Plaisir d'Eulalie - reviewed by Kerri

The facts:

2007 Chateau Sainte Eulalie Plaisir d’Eulalie
Region: La Liviniere, France
Variety: 15% Syrah, 45% Grenache, 40% Carignan (this is the blend for the 2003 vintage, according to the winery’s website)
Aging: Stainless steel for 15 to 18 months (again, for the 2003 vintage)



My take:

When we opened the wine fridge to look at our choices for wine tonight, we decided to go with the mystery French. Had no idea what grapes comprised this wine, but decided to take a chance and review it.

The wine looks dark red in the glass, but smells a bit more cherry red. I’d call this one a light bodied wine that is relatively short. It comes across as rather one note to me. It’s drinkable and pleasant enough, but I don’t get any complexity from it.

After letting it breathe a bit, it tastes more purple, but is still light bodied and not complex. Drinking the wine with grilled steak seemed to add some spicyness to the wine and made the finish a bit metallic. I actually didn’t care for it with the steak.

The bottom line for me: this one is a good sipping wine, if you like a light bodied red that is soft on the palate.

Price point: An internet search puts this at around $13 per bottle.

2007 Chateau Sainte Eulalie Plaisir d'Eulalie

Light and Thin.

Now this would probably be a compliment if I were talking about a white wine, but since I am talking about red maybe not so much. Interestingly enough, when I first poured the wine, it had almost no nose and very little flavor, time and a bit of warming up fixed that (the whole wine fridge being stuck at 52 thing and all…).

Once it had a bit to open up, it got a bit better, but I am still going to stick with the light and thin comment. Honestly, I cant think of any other way to describe it, and in its defense, the thinness is a gliding, dancing thinness rather than the anemic fragility that plagues, say a Pinot or a Tempranillo. Which at least makes for some semblance of depth of character, but it's a bit like second place, sure you gave it your all...but you still didn't win.

What this wine lacks, unfortunately, is perhaps what I crave most in wine, and what keeps me opening cork upon cork; mystery, depth, a sense of exploration. There are wines that when you drink them, defy understanding on the first taste. They require study, exploration, spelunking through the caverns of complexity that they offer. This is what I seek (well…at least when I am not just drinking for the sake of it), and what this wine fails to provide me with.

I realize, that I have said more about what the wine is not, rather than what it is; I shall correct that now. It’s light, it’s definitely French, and at temperature, it makes for decent sipping wine.

The bottom line: This wine fails to inspire me, I’m not sure I would pick it over the Concannon, or my new love the Neprica (I promise we’ll review that soon. We’ve tried to twice but ended up having such a great time hanging out and enjoying it that it just hasn’t happened yet), but the Plaisir d'Eulalie doesn’t suck, and we didn’t pour it out. I'll label it decent, but not my thing.

2007 Il Cuore Rosso Classico

The facts:

2007 Il Cuore Rosso Classico
Region: Mendocino, California
Winemaker: Dennis Patton
Variety: 51% Syrah, 26% Zinfandel, 12% Sangiovese, 6% Carignane, 5% Merlot
Aging: “Modest oak barrel” aging according to their website

This wine is all about mixed messages for me. The label leads me to be skeptical.



I have a hard time taking wine seriously, when it has kitschy things on the label (like the hearts, cats, etc.). But this is a blend of Syrah, Zin, Sangiovese, Carignane (for some reason in California, they add an E on the end), and Merlot. I usually like a red blend, so that led me to be hopeful.

My take:

It looks purple in the glass and upon seeing it, we both remarked, “Well this is a California wine.” It smells purpley-black to me.

The wine is big up front and a bit of spicy in the middle, but more so if you’ve pulled air over it. If you’re just sipping it, the middle kind of falls flat. It has a rather long finish (maybe 10 to 15 seconds) – longer than I’d like, actually because I’m not a huge fan of the taste.

It tastes the same way it smells – purpley-black; almost like dull blackberries, as if they were not tart or sweet, but bland. Because it's a California wine, I expected a more intense flavor, but didn’t really get it. And then the finish is a bit gray.

I’d call it medium bodied and not dry.

Now, all that being said, I went and read up on the wine after tasting and describing it. Turns out Il Cuore is Italian for “the heart” and is a tribute to the Italian immigrants who first planted grape vines in Northern California. Sheds a bit of light on the label, which was designed by Dan Rizzie, a cubist artist. All that is well and good, but it doesn’t make me like the wine any better. It’s just not my style. (I did mention at the outset of this endeavor that I’m biased toward old world style wines.)

If you like California-style wines, you might enjoy this. I read other reviews that indicated this embodies a Northern California wine.

Price point:
$10 - $13 per bottle

2007 Onix Classic by Vinicola del Priorat - Reviewed by Kerri

And we're back. Apologies for the radio silence on our end. You know how it is at the end of summer: trips to take, things to do. But, we knuckled down and drank some more wine - just for you. ;)

The facts:

2007 Onix Classic by Vinicola del Priorat
Region: Priorat, Spain
Variety: 50% Garnacha (aka Grenache), 50% Carinena (aka Carignan)
Aging: Stainless steel

My take:

This is a wine that I originally tried at New Heights restaurant back in March. We tried to find it locally at a few different wine stores and had some trouble, but then as luck would have it, my brother and sister-in-law actually found it (without knowing I’d been looking for it) at a Whole Foods in Virginia. Excellent - thanks guys! Time to go in for a second try. (Or is it a third by now?)

The nose is a bit dark red-purple. The taste comes across the same – dark red; plummy even. I get a bit of spice and complexity in the middle and a somewhat dry finish, though I wouldn’t call this a dry wine. It feels like a medium-bodied wine to me – not super light, but not super heavy either.

This is a 2007 and I find myself wondering if it would age well. I can kind of taste the earthy brown in it, but get more of an alcohol-like taste to it that I suspect might go away if it were another couple of years old. (And incidentally, that alcohol-like taste actually mellows out a bit as the wine opens up. I like the wine better after it's had some time in the glass to open up.)

Bottom line – it’s okay. I don’t love it, but I’d certainly have it again if I were to come across it. And as I said, I’m really curious as to what it might taste like after aging another 2 or 3 years. Right now, I’d call it a general sipping wine.

Price point: $13 - $17