Mora's Fine Wines Rhone Tasting: Alain Jaume Estates & Domain Grand Veneur

     Last Wednesday Mora's Fine Wines ran its third private wine seminar of Rhone wines featuring the wines of the Jaume family. These are the wines from the Alain Jaume estate and the negociant side of the business called Domain Grand Veneur. We had Helene Jaume with us for the evening
and enjoyed the full range of her family's great wines  paired with Joe Ciardullo's great cheese plates (@C'est Cheese- Port Jeff). Here's my take on some of the 9 wines we poured:

Grand Veneur Cotes du Rhone Reserve Blanc 2011
Tasting Notes: Fresh and crisp with a lighter style and lovely notes of white peach and citrus. I wish I'd tasted this wine at the beginning of summer and not at the end

92 Points! Beverage Dynamics

Grand Veneur Cotes du Rhone Reserve Rosé 2012
Tasting Notes: This wine is produced by bleeding the Cotes du Rhone red tanks, a process called "saignee". This beefs up the red wine and creates rosé! Most Rhone rosé is a bit darker and heavier. I love Tavel but it is a big mouthful of wine. The Grand Veneur rosé is more provence style with a fresh crisp quality. It is quite dry with a noticeable strawberry aroma and it is also a wine I'd wish I'd discovered about four months ago.

91 Points! International Wine Review
The wine is made from a “saignee” from the Cotes du Rhone Rouge, made from 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, and 20% Cinsault.
Cheese PAIRING: Port Salut and French Blueberry Jelly

Tasting Notes: All the crus, Rasteau, Lirac and Vacqueyras were excellent but this was my favorite. It had a darker masculine quality with spice and dark fruit as well as a meaty slightly bacon quality and some earthy tones as well.
90-92 Points! Wine Advocate
A blend of 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah, and 10% Mourvèdre
FOOD PAIRING: St. Necatire and Cornichons &
Abbaye de Belloc and Picholine olives

Grand Veneur Chateauneuf du Pape Les Origines 2010
Tasting Notes: This was the wine of the night! We decanted it at about 6:30 and poured it after 8 so it had a little time to soften up. This is what I'd call a modern style Chateauneuf du Pape with some new oak and plenty of fresh berry qualities though with age (this wine is good for at least a couple of decades of cellaring) it will show great secondary classic flavors. It was clearly the best of the night and I'm glad some of our tasters invested in the limited number of magnums we have to offer of this wine.

95 Points! Wine Advocate
A blend of 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 20% Mourvedre ( 70 year-old vines) aged in new oak barrels.
FOOD PAIRING: Epoisses and Orange Marmalade &
Roquefort and French honey

Mora's plans to continue this seminar format with another one in October or November of 2013 and then resume in February or March of 2014.