"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
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>
> 1999 Tardieu-Laurent Costieres de Nimes
> Now, I opened this for 3 reasons - I knew Ian had said he had never
> tasted a
> T-L wine, I thought it would be up Joe's fruitbomb alley, and I sure as
> hell
> couldn't think of another time to serve it. I remember on tasting this the
> first time on release thinking this needed a spoon to serve, like
> blackberry
> jam. For all my Dominique Laurent-bashing I think this wine showed better
> than
> I expected- the oak had integrated pretty well, leaving an obviously
> modern but
> not caricaturish wine. Dense blackberry and black plum fruit, vanilla oak
> edge
> with a good finish. Not enough balancing acidity for my tastes, but not a
> joke
> at all. I should give Ian his props- he was able to guess "modern , from
> the
> south- Provence or Langedoc?" B
>
> I had promised Ian I'd try to provide an overview of some American
> cheeses- we
> had an Ouray (from Sprout Creek Farm in NY), Ewe's Blue (Old Chatham, also
> NY),
> Grafton 4 Star (Vermont), and Red Hawk (Cowgirl Creamery). Saturday's LBV
> was
> brought out for the blue, a sticky for the Red Hawk and the dessert, and a
> Burgundy for the others.
snipped

> Dale Williams
> Drop "damnspam" to reply

I have had this wine, as well as many TL wines, on a number of occasions and
find the "fruit bomb" description a little odd. I would hardly place the
Costieres de Nimes in that category. There is a good deal of ripe fruit but
hardly overdone and in contrast to your comment, Dale, I do find a good
level of underlying acidity. This is an excellent wine to serve with Peking
duck if you don't have a good Burgundy handy.

Ron Lel