Le Cep - Cotes du Rhone @@@@ (4 corks)

Retails: $8.99

Drinking French wines makes me feel as if I need to be sitting at a bistro overlooking the Seine, wearing a ridiculous beret and smoking foul smelling cigarettes while waxing philosophic about Camus' L'Etranger. Poetic, yes?

I was an art major in college, the kind of college kid who couldn't wait to be un-institutionalized and released into the world. Senior year couldn't get over fast enough, but I had no direction and almost moved to Paris to be a starving street artist all for the sake of authenticity. I could see myself working for mere sheckles, in my French beret, drinking wine at lunch and holding a paintbrush in one hand while chain smoking in the other.

Ahhh what a pipe dream.

Cotes du Rhone wines come from the Rhone region in France where grape cultivation is said to have started in 600 BC. There is some serious wine tradition going into these bottles. There are several appellations in the Rhone region, the names of which are divided by where in the valley they grow and what tradition they come from. The northern sub-region is known as Rhone Septentrienal, the varietals produced here are developed from Syrah and Viognier grapes. Southern sub-region is referred to as Rhone meridional and includes a variety of reds, whites and rose wines blended from a many grapes. Cotes du Rhone happens to be the largest appellation by volume in the area and can come from either sub-region, however, it usually denotes a lower-priced wine so typically it will be made of grapes grown in the Southern region.

This is a beautifully composed red wine. Like many others in its region, it exhibits rich flavors of dark chocolate and plum with a distinct tannin flavor in the finish. My recommendation is to consume this bottle in one sitting, the flavors tend to vanish slightly when left open to air for too long---then again wouldn't it be considered unpatriotic if a Frenchman didn't consume a whole bottle in one sitting?