Tasted: 2006 Domaine de Carobelle Gigondas

2006 Domaine de Carobelle Gigondas
Appellation:  Gigondas
Tasting Notes: 80% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 5% Cinsault.  Violet in the glass, it’s the color I think of when I think “Granache”, like that means something.
Nose is a little tight, with some jammy red fruit and some earthiness/mushroom/dirt coming through.
I get some tannins, some great fruit mid palate, with a touch of pepper. Dry finish. It doesn’t come together for me as well as some other Rhones have, it’s missing a little balance and smoothness. It’s helping me understand the description “rustic”, which makes me excited to have it with beef stew; not a bad deal for the price.  Also matching very nicely with smoked gouda and an aged white cheddar.
I’ve had a couple of  ’07 Southern Rhones, and they are much more to my liking, although I have not had an ’07 Gigondas.   I’ve generally not liked Granache based wines, so there’s that, too.   This one might have been well served to sit quietly in the bottom of my closet for a couple of years.  Not my favorite wine, but very good.
Rating: 3/5;  14/20;  86/100
Price: $19.99 at Beltway Fine Wine

A note on ratings:  I use the 100 point rating for Cellartracker, even though my palate is still developing.  As a statistics geek, I know that the variability in scores works itself out as the number of scores increases.  However, my score may not be yours, or Robert Parker’s.  I much prefer to use a 5 point (or star, or whatever you want to call it) scale, as it more represents my reaction to wine, which is more simple than a 100 point scale represents.  I like the 20 point scale as the more detailed score.   On this site, I will provide all three, although the most meaningful are the 5 and 20 point ratings.