TN: Cazes Muscat-Viognier '11...(short/boring)

WINE TALK
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The wine that prompted my rambling/incoherent post on religion:

  1. Dom.Cazes LeCanon du Marechal 80%Muscat-20% Viognier VdPdesCotesCatalanes/Rivesaltes/Roussillon (13%; www.Cazes-Rivesaltes.com; BioDynami) 2011: Med.gold color; very strong Muscat/floral/carnations/cheap perfume slight metallic/stony rather simple Muscat-dominated nose; off-dry soft/fat intense Muscat/floral light bodied/rather weak some metallic/stony bit bitter flavor; med.short tangy/metallic/stony very strong floral/muscatty soft/fat off-dry finish; no Viognier character present that I can find; plenty of Muscat character but on the simple side. $17.00 (AV)

A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. So…I bought this btl because it’s from a region that you don’t see many wines and it was biodynamic. Some grapes are soooo strong in varietal character (Muscat or Concord or GWT, say) that the varietal character dominates everything…no subtleties whatsoever. That pretty much describes this wine. It was soft, a bit tiring to drink, and pretty simple. Maybe age will bring something to this wine that will make it more interesting…but I have my doubts.
    I was also interested if the biodynamic farming brought anything unique to this wine…as it does to TonyCotturi’s wines. Well…I guess there wasn’t anything here that I could find that spoke of its biodynamic upbringing. I’m sure the vnyd is beautiful to look at w/ all sorts of bugs and worms creeping thru the soils. But if there’s a unique signature to biodynamic wines…I can’t see it. Maybe if it were raised by conventional farming techniques…it would be even more miserable…don’t know.
    Tom
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In all fairness, that wine is a cheapish supermarket wine (about 4,50€ here) produced in large quantities and although Cazes are Biodynamic, they are a negociant taking fruit from many managed vineyards. Plus it’s machine harvested and the winemaking techniques are more industrial than artisanal.

Don’t let it put you off exploring the wines of the region - or Muscat for that matter.

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Not to worry, Jon. I tend to try about any wine that I find from that region. I was attracted to this because
a Viognier/Muscat blend is pretty rare. This one just didn’t work for me.
Tom