It’s funny, as I’m comfortably inside my fourth decade on the planet those hangovers are getting less and less forgiving. A great friend was over from Norway this weekend so on Saturday we followed him around Soho and ended up in a pub called De Hems. 4 hours of Belgian beers later and Sunday became a write off. Was I really in the mood to do some wine tasting? Not especially, but I got my chin up and I jogged on!
I’m afraid in my degenerated state I only managed the one wine; Château les Cèdres 2007 from Domaine Wardy in the Bekaa Valley, picked up from Spirited Wines for a little over £15. Got to say, I loved it, and it perked me right up. Simply called a “Vin Rouge”, it’s a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah.
The wine itself was a lovely looking deep ruby red with some garnet (brown) tinges on the edge. The smells gave away all three grapes, with blackcurrant and cherry fruits, cedar and cinnamon from the barrel ageing, and a floral overlay of violet (ever had purple violets before? Smells like them!).
On the taste it was as full bodied as you’d expect. I was trying to work out whether it was sediment or whether the tannins were just that grainy?! It turned out to be the later, but it wasn’t horrible or anything. The tannin was very much there, but nice and ripe, no bother! I didn’t really pick up too many more flavours in the mouth, but the finish was quite long, and the most aggressive aftertaste was that violet taste. Really nice to drink now, but I reckon it could definitely do with another 5 to 10 years in your cellar (cos we all have one of them right?).
The food we had with it was the lemon and paprika lamb chops with a all-the-vegetables-left-in-the-fridge and couscous medley thingy. The lemon juice just made it so light, but the paprika paired great with the spiciness of the wine coming from the Syrah. It managed to come across as a full bodied dish, that went well with the full bodied wine, but the lift of the couscous and lemon juice kept it light enough to cope with the hangover. Phew!
Overall, really impressed with the wine. You wouldn’t get many better wines out there for less than £20, so I reckon I’ve got to give it a pretty high mark here. 8/10.
Cheers
Other posts in NWTW Week 18:
#NWTW Week 18: Lebanese Red (Part One)
#NWTW Week 18: Lebanese Red (Part Two)
#NWTW Week 18: Wine from Lebanon
