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17th October 2024 by Rachel Wallhouse
Welcome back to the Wednesday Night Sausage Wine Club! As usual, the “Wednesday Night Sausage Wine” is a wine that doesn’t cost the earth and is the perfect accompaniment to sausage and mash and culinary equivalents of this. Now, over to you Nick…
Well, our all too brief Summer was over in the blink of an eye, wasn’t it? The days are now getting decidedly shorter and we’re heading firmly into Autumn. Autumn really is a lovely time of year with all those wonderful colours in the countryside. It is, as John Keats poetically described it, that “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. As well as the colours and the smell of woodsmoke in the air, there is a notable change in the style of food that we eat; it becomes warming and comforting. We have hearty casseroles; root vegetables and we are into the game season. We choose our wines accordingly, wines that match this seasonal fare, wines such as Cotes du Rhone. Rhone wines and Autumn do share a natural synergy. Our Wednesday Night Sausage Wine is such a wine; the Reserve de Fleur Cotes du Rhone.
The southern Rhone is home to many famous wines, names such as Chateauneuf du Pape but the one we probably drink most of is that great favourite Cotes du Rhone. There are many different grape varieties allowed in the southern Rhone, up to 13 are allowed in Chateauneuf du Pape, but the main players are Syrah and Grenache and these are the constituent grapes of the Reserve de Fleur.
The Reserve de Fleur has quite an intense red ruby colour with a nose of black fruit and red berries. It is quite bright fruit on the palate with a smooth warming peppery spice finish. It’s a harmonious wine with a “mellow fruitfulness” (thanks Keats!) There is an old adage in the game season of “Burgundy with feather and Rhone with fur” so, being respecters of tradition, we intended to have a hearty game casserole but I suddenly remembered Keir Starmer’s exhortation at his party’s conference for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the sausages. Well, we thought we’d better do our bit and so, instead, we decided to have delicious venison sausages and roasted vegetables with the Cotes du Rhone and jolly good it was too. The fruit went well and that hint of pepper in the wine just lifted everything.
So, if you’re looking for an excellent value Cotes du Rhone to lift those darker nights and to help with the cosy, warming ambience of Autumn, don’t be a sausage to fortune get the Reserve de Fleur Cotes du Rhone at just £11.99 it will fit the bill perfectly. Available online.
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