Châteauneuf-du-Pape vs. Côtes du Rhône: Which French Red Wine Will Win?

Hi, I'm Laura Manick-Fioravanti. This is the Weekly Tasting where I get to try some of my favorite wines and send them to you and this time we're trying a duo of two wines from the Rhone Valley. The Rhone Valley is a region that's located in the southeast part of France. As a matter of fact, I got to travel there cruising up the Rhone River on a river boat last year and it's an it's an unbelievable place for discovering both white and red wine but this time we're talking about two specific appellations Chateauneuf-du-Pape which was the summer home of the Pope and the Cote d'Orone Appellation. Both of these wines come from the southern Rhone and they're really beautiful red wines to get started on your journey towards discovering the Rhone Valley. Our first red wine is Chateau McCool. It's a 2017 Cote d'Orone Village and I love the Cote d'Orone Appellation. You can find quite a few different styles of Cote d'Orone wines. There's the entry Cote d'Orone wines that are great for pizza night, pasta night and then there are just a step above an appellation or a system a level of Cote d'Orones called Cote d'Orone Village which is what this is. So Chateau McCool is the producer. It's a blend of Grenache and Syrah and let's give it a try. On the notes immediately you find what is the warmth and beauty of the Rhone Valley, sun-kissed fruit. So you can imagine these grapes just growing in a relatively warm place. So Grenache is like Pinot Noir in that it has strawberries, raspberries. The wine has quite a bit of spice, black pepper, white pepper. It's really aromatic on the nose with a lot of florals showing through and when you take a sip it's so pleasing to everybody. The Cote d'Orone Village is one of the regions that I always recommend if you're having large groups of people at your house. If you have a wide variety of guests, some that like Pinot Noir, maybe some that like Cabernet Sauvignon. So the Grenache grape is giving me all the ripe fruit. It's silky in texture. Syrah is giving me all that nice pepper, spice, black kind of olive and a really charred earth. So we have a medium-bodied wine that's juicy and delicious with soft tannins and really bright and fresh. Perfect if you're making burgers, pasta with bolognese or any of those everyday dinner nights. The second one in the tasting is the Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It's 2015 and it's a really elegant wine. What I love about trying these two wines side by side is you can really see how wine's capacity to age. Chateauneuf-du-Pape is one of the most noble wine producing regions in France and you can blend up to 13 different grapes. In this we have the classics which are Grenache, Syrah and a grape called Morvedra and you can really feel the elegance and intensity of this wine. Even quite a bit more complex than the Cocheron which is for everyday drinking. In this wine I have a bouquet of red and black fruits, so red cherry, strawberry, raspberry, black plum, red plum, layered with tons of minerality. This is a soil in the area called Gallais. There are these river stones that look really really big, like massive size and the vines just struggle to grow in this soil, really developing an intensity. These are old vines so you really get complex layers and layers of fruit. This is perfect for lamb if you're doing like a leg of lamb or roasted lamb and it's a great special occasion wine. Thanks for tuning in for another great tasting with me. I'm so excited to be able to show you these two wines Cocheron and Chateauneuf-du-Pape from the same producer and trying an everyday wine along with a special occasion to really understand how the capacity to age or the ability to please right away and both of these wines do just that. See you next time. Cheers!