2007 Domaine Charvin Le Poutet Cotes du Rhone

This bottle went for $18 - a reputable producer, a fair price, and a region we somewhat neglect, seemed like an easy choice.

When I say this smells like Dr. Pepper, I mean it in a way kinda like, I racked my brain to think if I recently drank Dr. Pepper from this glass and forgot to wash it, all along with some cassis.

Cassis dominates the palate....to a point that, dare I call it "jammy"? A touch sweet - sort of a raspberry, cranberry, blueberry thing - a bit of spice, some black licorice, virtually no oak, some brown spice, some eucalyptus, but all in all, fruity.

More of that cassis thing on the finish, some wintergreen mint qualities.

Tough to argue with at eighteen bucks - I dig it.

Score: 89

2007 Jean-Luc Colombo Côtes du Rhône Les Abeilles

Grabbed a bottle of this for eight bucks because a shelftalker told me someone - Spectator, I guess - dug it.

Sort of a Beaujolais type nose - raspberry, earth, rotten fruit, perhaps a bit of banana....

Acidic, inching towards harsh, almost seems to scorch the tongue. Dirt and earth dominate, fruit is very mild, maybe some plum, perhaps peaches mixed with strawberry as well.

A dirty, spicy finish - brown baking spice, some mint, perhaps a touch of eucalyptus.

I tend to go easier on cheap swill if it's not a sweet sugary mess, and I find myself wanting to go that way here, but I'll resist....with food, I suppose it would be fine, but I can't get behind this.

Score: 80

2007 Domaine Charvin Vin de Pays de la Principauté d'Orange à côté

It really does need to be repeated - put your young red wines in some sort of decanter for at least an hour before drinking. This wine was extremely tight for the first ninety minutes or so and really didn't come together until hour three. Eleven bucks at Binny's - many places online have it for fifteen - I snagged a bottle on a whim thanks to a Parker 90 point rave.

The nose has something kind of strange, almost a buffalo wing sauce quality comes through on the nose - spice as in hot pepper spice. There's also a cherry candy - red Starburst - thing.

Cherry and strawberry candy, generic sort of red fruit, with a dash of black pepper, menthol, and a bit of cigar, all with a slightly medicinal back palate. This is fairly light in body - when I think of medicinal wine, I think heavy and viscous, not so much here, which makes what can be perceived as a flaw into an interesting quirky quality.

More of that medicinal, menthol, minty, and cherry thing linger on the finish.

This was apparently aged for eighteen months in concrete - I'm not sure I've encountered a wine not aged in either steel or oak. Concrete...fascinating... Personally, I'd sit on this wine for another year or so before opening. I'm less thrilled than Parker, but considering the eleven dollar price tag, I also can't bash it.

Score: 85

2006 Maison Bouachon Cotes du Rhone Les Rabassieres Skalli

There's an interesting ad campaign pushing the fact that Cotes du Rhone is food friendly - even with asparagus? Even with those weird looking vegetables you have to peel that I can't stand? What are those things called? I don't care. As a fan of the bargain "end of bin" sale, I present you a wine that retails at twelve but was crushed down to five dollars American.

This nose is like Buster Poindexter - hot hot hot. It's also like David Johansen - it needs a fix and a kiss. By fix and a kiss I mean an hour in the decanter and decent stemware. Seriously though, 14.5% alcohol is pretty up there for a CdR...it's like a personality crisis? You got it? It was hot..

Hmmm....earthy and spicy mostly with only a bit of fruit. There's some dried green and brown miscellaneous spice. A bit of slightly unripe berry - maybe blackberry - maybe it's plum, maybe it's both. You know, it's sorta like that Pomegranate White Tea from Trader Joe's in that it tastes neither like pomegranate, nor white tea, but some essence of both, yet neither. When these reviews get all strange it's because I either really like a wine or am extraordinarily ambivalent - this is the latter.

The finish really just strikes me as gently tannic, like chewing a few tea leaves with just a hint of blackberry. Actually it's like chewing a few leaves of Pomegranate White Tea.

Like, you know, whatever....at twelve bucks you can probably do better, but on clearance it's a fine offering at what decent cheap wine can be.

Wine: 5
Value: Pass at full price

2006 Reserve Perrin Cotes du Rhone

This was eight bucks at Costco – a Cotes du Rhone with a screwcap? Hmmm. Why not?

Plum on the nose.

Tobacco, cedar, cherry – a bit short on acid – but overall not bad at all. As it opens, more strawberry comes through as well as some plum.

More strawberries on the nose and that's really about it.

Simple, but not at all bad and a nice value.

Wine: 7
Value: Yes

2007 M. Chapoutier Bellerche Cotes-du-Rhone Rose

Nine bucks and a reputable producer sounded like a safe bet to go with some Indian food.

No nose to speak of.

Dry tart cherry, some subtle spicy notes – cinnamon mostly – as the wine sees some air some strawberry creeps forward.

Not much finishing other than some lingering tannins.

I like roses – in fact, I could drink them daily if they'd let me - but every so often you grab a random crappy one....this isn't terrible, but it's not enjoyable...for a few bucks less you can get something significantly better.

Wine: 4
QPR: 1

2004 Domaine du Petit Barbaras Côtes du Rhône-Villages

Another bargain from the clearance sale. Unfortunately I don't recall what I paid, but I know the retail was $13 and I paid closer to $6.

The nose on this one is tough....I don't know. If I had to guess I'd say cherry, but cherry is a common descriptor here. We'll just say it's weak.

Smooth yet funky. A bit of oak, spice, funk, cherry, and a nice punch of acid with some blueberry as well. Not bad at all and a reasonable amount of depth even for the $13.

Dirt comes through on the finish, not much fruit, and it fades rapidly.

Well...it's cheap, it's French, and there's nothing to complain about. The nose and finish are weak, but the palate pushes it into the recommendable range.

2003 Cotes du Rhone E. Guigal

This is one of our favorites. It's $11 generally, but I've seen it for under $10 which is a steal.

We'll start off with the negative--this wine has almost no nose...I get earth and that's about it. Fran gets some hints of berries, but can't place it.

A little bit of spice, anise, and earth mix with blackberries on the palate. The tannins are smooth and this is an easy drinking, fairly simple wine.

But the interesting thing about it is how stronger it gets as it opens. When you first pour it, it's excellent--smooth and balanced. Let it sit for an hour or two and all of a sudden the tannins firm up, the herbs become stronger, and the anise kicks in. There's still some berries, but plenty of earth shows up well into the evening.

Everything blends together nicely and this will basically go with anything....we're having it with veggie burgers and fries and I find it to be a winning combination. This is another one of those wines that makes me said we don't live in a larger place...if we had a basement or room for a wine fridge, I'd gladly pick this up by the case.