I ordered this fine, underrated wine to go with steak tartare at the upscale bistro-style Resto in San Francisco. Its enticing aromas of ripe plum fruit and loamy earthiness got everyone excited, but the real treat lay in the mouth: huge, focused flavors of plum, licorice, and black cherry fruit belied its medium-bodied weight and sound structure. A lush mouthfeel, for sure, but some grip. Its endless finish was edged with Asian spices, white pepper, and loads more of that ripe cherry richness. I was surprised at how pure this particular example tasted, since wines from this area are known for their brambly, peppery notes. Many grape varieties are allowed in the blend here, but we detected a dominance of one, probably from older vines, that gave this example its sweet palate and depth.

Can you guess what it is? Write me, or click here for the answer:

Let’s start with the fact that this wine is obviously a red wine, since I ordered it to go with raw red meat and it’s got flavors of red fruit. And let’s guess it’s French, since we were at a bistro and because (despite the purity of its fruit flavors) there’s a touch old world earthiness on the nose. (Also, French wines are highly regulated, hence the reference to the grape varieties that are “allowed” in this wine’s blend.) Now, what fine French red is “underrated” and consists of many possible grape varieties? There can only be one answer: Châteauneuf du Pape. But which could this be? We know surprisingly pure, that it tastes mostly like one of the 13 grape varieties allowed in the blend, and that taste is super-ripe cherry, round and a little sweet. Gotta be grenache, which is usually the less serious, more fruity grape in this appellation, but here is lent some heft by the fact that it comes from old vines. There are a few producers in CDP who are very famous for their grenache-based blend, but Les Clos du Caillou has been stealing the spotlight lately for the spectacular results they’re getting from their 70 to 100 year old granache vines. And indeed, that’s what we have here: the 2006 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Le Clos du Caillou “Les Safres,” made by Domaine Vacheron-Pouizin.