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Extended Tasting Note No 3   

Domaine Le Roc Des Anges Segna de Cor 2003 Côtes du Roussillon Villages
Another extended tasting note. I’m sharing my own private experience of a wine, and as a reader of this site pointed out recently, you reading this note will give you your own separate experience. You can’t share mine, but the better my note is, the more you will have a grasp of how I found this wine.

First things first. Appearance. The bottle and label are striking. It’s a tall bottle with virtually no shoulder, and an elegant, modern, rather minimalist label. It shouts classy and modern to the drinker. Prepare for a sophisticated, assured drinking experience. Expectation is important in wine tasting.

This brings me on to my second point. I don’t know anything about this producer, and very little about the wine. I suspect it is a varietal Carignan (from memory). It’s Côtes du Roussillon Villages, which is quite ‘happening’ at the moment. It’s a shame I don’t know more, because the context has the potential to elevate the tasting experience. I always enjoy drinking a wine more, for example, if I have met the producer.

Open the bottle and pour a glass. It’s quite a dark red/black colour. The nose initially is dominated by some roast coffee notes, suggesting a bit of new oak. Underneath that there’s lush, rich fruit. Probably blackberry is the best descriptor. A little jammy, but not badly so. There’s also a savoury spiciness. It’s ripe and full; not noticeably old world, but not quite new world either. A bit liqueur like. Trying to tie down smells is difficult, isn’t it? With vision and hearing there’s a spatial and temporal separation of inputs, respectively. With olfaction, you get everything at once mixed in together. One smell researcher says it isn’t possible for people to distinguish more than three different aromas in a mix. Underneath the rich fruit I’m now getting a savoury dimension dominating.

When I take a sip this is noticeably savoury. There’s some firm tannic structure, together with spicy red fruits and some woodiness. It’s quite a chewy wine. The tannins are mouth drying, but not overly assertive, and the lushness of the fruit counterbalances them quite well. There’s a sort of inkyness to the wine. You could even say it is minerally.

The context? I’m drinking this on Christmas Eve, after putting the kids to bed. We have my parents staying, and a visitor has just popped in, so I’m not totally undistracted. But I’m drinking from a good glass, with no competing smells, and we haven’t started eating yet.

How good is this wine? You know that I think the concept of the ‘best’ wine is silly. But I need to make some sort of quality judgement; ‘quality’ has always to be linked with purpose, as I’ve argued before. This is a very good, but not great wine. It’s certainly in a modern style, but there’s still plenty of southern character to it. It’s quite ‘new Roussillon’. I think I paid about £8, which is good value. I’d serve this with food: something rich and hearty, maybe a beef daube. If I’m forced to give a rating, it’s not quite 90, but it’s closer 90 than 85. I’d say 88. It’s probably the overall lack of harmony and slight protrusion of the alcohol that costs this wine a higher rating. It doesn’t seem quite at peace with itself. But I’m enjoying it, still.

December 2004

see other extended tasting notes:

Grünhaus; Veratina; Gaillard

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