Recently, my bank account sat me down for a talk. It kindly suggested I review a few more affordable wines, pointing out that not only would it, but readers, might appreciate this fact. It has a point.
I picked this up in Iceland (the shop, not the country), although it’s fairly widely available. I should point out that by ‘widely avialable,’ I haven’t checked if that includes Iceland, the country.
It’s from Famille Perrin, and I don’t think I’ve ever had anything bad from them, so it was probably a safe bet. This is one of their ‘entry level,’ wines.
In the glass
Clear, bright. I’m going to call it medium+. It’s a bit deeper than just medium, but it’s not an inky, dark abyss you are staring into. Either that, or I was indecisive, and couldn’t decide which to call it. Either way, let’s go with ruby for the colour. Its pretty to look at when you hold it up to a strong light, but otherwise, it’s pretty much wine-looking. (Note to self: with evenings getting longer, perhaps do this bit earlier in the day, to get some natural light.)
The nose
Nothing. Nope. Nada. Zip. Yuu ch baihgui, if you want. And forgive my non-standard transliteration or any mistakes in the last one. It’s been a while.
The palate
Medium bodied. Smooth. Easy drinking. Dark reds and a hint of something black. They’re berries. Not cherries this time. And no plums. Perhaps some (black) pepper. Possibly a hint of garrigue, if you want to be posh about it. But I’m less certain about that one.
The tannins are noticeable, soft and higher than the first impression leads you to think. They’re not excessively out of balance or anything, however. On a whole, it’s nicely done. There’s acidity, but more in the ‘it’s not noticeably lacking’ sense than prominent in its own right.
It does go better with food, I think. After the tasting, I had it with spaetzle with cheese, shallots and sausage added in to the mix, and the wine went well with it.
It’s perfectly fine, nice even. It’s not exciting, but then it doesn’t need to be, no does it pretend to be. It was, frankly, about what I was expecting.
Rating
Yummy overall, It’s Wine on the visuals.
It’s easy to drink and easy to like. I think that really says it all. It’s a good wine when you just want wine, nothing fancy.
Sustainability
Don’t see anything on the bottle or their website about sustainability, being organic, etc. So presumably not.
The technical info and such
13 % ABV. Carignan, Cinsault Grenache, Syrah. Grenache. Widely available. I picked mine up from Iceland for £7.75. Most places seem to offer it around the £8 mark.
The other stuff
Just wanted to note somewhere that their Instagram account describes themselves as: ‘La Vieille Ferme, the chicken wine…’ ‘Cause there are chickens on the label. Which, to be fair, is probably how a lot of people remember it.