Wine: Château L'Ermitage Costieres De Nîme

America's Francophobia is bizarre and historically inaccurate, but perhaps most importantly it is beneficial to casual wine drinkers. Okay, there may be more important ramifications of a dispute between two of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, but it's hard for me to think of any. In a time when the Euro is trying to pick a fight with the Dollar and finding that the Dollar can hardly defend itself, it's a delight to come across a wine like the Château L'Ermitage Costieres De Nîme.

This Rhône wine, even the young 2003 vintage, is a well balanced and yet slightly tart blend of Granache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. By today's standards, this wine's alcohol content (12.5%) is relatively low and so it's refreshing to drink a few glasses of it without needing to put your kickstand out in order to keep the room from spinning. It demands grilled food. Oh yeah: it goes for less than $10/bottle (!).

The next time The Senate decides to do something like rename their cafeteria's french fries to Freedom Fries, I'm going to run out and grab a couple of cases of French wines.

Value: 4.0
Color & Clarity: 3.0
Bouquet: 3.0
Flavor: 3.0