2007 Chateau de Nages

2007 Chateau de Nages, Costieres de Nimes - We enjoyed this delicious blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre with grilled lamb tonight. The wine possesses terrific aromatics of strawberry, rhubarb and licorice. The palate shows a lot of sweet-tart red fruit and the beautiful herbaceousness the French refer to as garrigue. Just a touch of that spicy green peppercorn flavor that I dearly love from Rhone wines. Turns a bit tart around the 2-hour mark. A very nice Cotes-du-Rhone for less than $20

For dinner, we ground some lamb shoulder cubes from Homespun Hill Farm (a Kansas CSA) and blended it with Parmesan cheese, herbs, breadcrumb and a beaten egg. After letting this glorified lamb meatloaf concoction sit for a few hours, I formed it into a couple of sausage-shaped cylinders and threaded them onto skewers which were grilled over charcoal. As always, the lamb was a wonderful pairing with the Rhone wine.