Sips: At $20, a top red blend from California’s Beckmen Vineyards

Photo: Edward Deitch/Vint-ed.com

One of the better California reds I have tasted this year sells for a modest $20 and really over-delivers on value and interest. Beckmen Vineyards, a gorgeous, rolling property in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, produces a range of red and white wines, mainly from Rhone varieties. While Beckmen’s single-varietal reds made from grenache and syrah come into their own after some bottle aging, its newly released red blend, the 2010 Cuvee Le Bec, is already drinking beautifully. This estate wine is made from 44 percent syrah, 34 percent grenache, 13 percent counoise, mourvedre and 9 percent counoise. It’s grapey and concentrated with sweet blackberry, blackcurrant and boysenberry fruit and secondary notes of cinnamon and unsweetened cocoa. Oak is nicely integrated and the wine is moderately tannic. Alcohol is listed as 14 percent. All and all it’s a pleasure to drink. Consider it for leg of lamb, pulled pork and and even burgers on the grill. Received as a press sample.

Wine tasting: two superb red values from France’s Languedoc

Languedoc in southern France, as I have noted in recent months, represents some of the world’s best wine values. By that I mean, if you choose well, you’re likely to find modestly priced wines of greater interest and dimension than from most other regions. Many Americans are still unfamiliar with the wines (they would have trouble telling you exactly where Langudeoc is much less specific appellations within the region).

Two reds I sampled recently illustrate the Langudeoc value proposition especially well. The first is Domaine de Fontsainte’s 2007 Corbières “Réserve la Demoiselle,” a superb, authentic terroir wine that combines delicious red and dark berry fruit and a deep earthiness. There are lots of other elements here, including fig, mint and rosemary along with cocoa and leather notes. The blend is 60 percent carignan from century-old vines, 30 percent grenache and 10 percent mourvèdre. With a relatively modest 13.5 percent alcohol, this wine would be a perfect match with grilled or pan-seared pork chops. It’s also a real bargain, with the average price listed on wine-searcher.com at about $15.

The second wine is Domaine d’Aupilhac’s 2008 Montpeyroux, a slightly bigger wine with a core of blackberry accented by herb, spice and unsweetened chocolate notes, with alcohol listed at 14 percent.  The village of Montpeyroux is a sub-appellation of the broader Coteaux du Languedoc and this wine is a blend of 30 percent mourvèdre, 25 percent syrah, 25 percent carignan, 16 percent grenache and four percent cinsault. Easy food pairings include grilled beef, lamb and sausage. The average price on wine-searcher.com is about $20 or so. Both wines are imported by Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, California. 

As I found on my visit to the region in May, Languedoc, which churns out more wine than any other region in the world, is trying mightily to move past its quantity-over-quality image. These wines are a testament that Languedoc is succeeding. Wines received as press samples.

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Sips: A rosé from California’s Clayhouse Wines

It’s Father’s Day and a little rosé is in order this afternoon.  Clayhouse Wines 2010 Adobe Pink is a concentrated blend of roughly one-third each of mourvèdre, syrah and cabernet sauvignon from California’s Central Coast.  Almost copper in color, it shows cassis and herb notes with lime and the slightest bit of vanilla on the long finish. Bursting with flavor. Recommended for grilled herbed chicken and pork. The suggested price is $14. Received as a press sample.

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An American in France produces some memorable Languedoc wines

NARBONNE, France -- One of the most gorgeous vineyards I have  seen lies just outside this small Languedoc city a stone’s throw from the Mediterranean Sea. Château des Karantes, named after a Bishop of Carcassonne who owned the property hundreds of   years ago, is surrounded by steep cliffs on three sides, with an old  bunker (top right in the picture) still visible atop one of them, a reminder that the property was controlled by the Germans during World War II. Walter Knysz 3d, an American from Michigan whose family is a part-owner of the domaine, reminded me while looking over the property that the Nazis believed the Allied invasion would take place here in the south of France rather than in Normandy.     

Today, these are far happier times for the estate of 470 acres, a little over 100 of them vineyards. This week, Château  des Karantes’s 2009 AOP Languedoc La Clape Rouge was named best Languedoc-Roussillon red wine over 10 euros ($14 or so)  in Decanter Magazine’s World Wine Awards. “To win that award for this wine is huge,” Knysz (right) told me as dusk settled over his vineyards in La Clape, which, with its extreme southern location in Languedoc,  produces some of the region’s most luscious and memorable reds. That reputation was upheld as I tasted the new release a short time later at a restaurant here in Narbonne with Knysz, his winemaker Nicolas Laverny and Christopher Laidebeure, the sales manager. The wine, which will have a suggested price of $23 in the U.S., is a blend of 50 percent grenache, 40 percent syrah and 10 percent mourvèdre grown on the clay and limestone soils that dominate the property. Its beautiful structure, concentrated fruit, mainly plum and blackberry, subtle oak integration and attractive herbal notes derived from the adjacent scrubland known as garrigue make the wine stand out.

Other notable wines from the Karantes portfolio include the 2010 AOP Languedoc Blanc, $22, a blend of bourboulenc, grenache blanc, roussanne and vermentino that is fresh and easy to drink with honey, apricot and lemon notes, a bit of brine and good acidity; the bright 2010 Rosé des Karantes, $12, a mourvèdre-grenache-syrah summer bargain with flavors of strawberry and raspberry, some herb and spice notes and a vanilla touch on the long finish; and the intensely concentrated 2006 Diamant, $60, which is 100 percent syrah, spent 18 months in large new French oak barrels and is marked by intense fruit, mainly blackberry, a good deal of spice and a black licorice note.

The Karantes team was over the top the other night, and it deserves to be.

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