Saturday, April 30, 2011

La Vieille Ferme Cotes du Ventoux, 2007

La Vieille Ferme is an old favorite that I buy every year because it's so inexpensive (usually $6.99 a bottle) and good. And it's very enjoyable again tonight although no match at all for the Altitude 500 Ventoux (same appellation, same vintage) I had last night.

The color is a medium crimson/ruby, less bright and less saturated than the Altitude 500. The aromas offer up more garrigue (Provencal herbs), pepper and spice but less bright raspberry fruit. This is a medium bodied, easy going wine that goes well with pizza, but there is clearly less fruit, acidity and intensity compared to the Altitude 500.

6 comments:

  1. ... but is this an Artisan Wine?

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  2. 1) Not every wine I drink or review here is necessarily an artisan wine. The focus is on "inexpensive wines made for every day enjoyment" that are not "manufactured for mass consumption."

    2) Yes, I think La Vieille Ferme is an artisan wine. Do you disagree?

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  3. B8wine, here is what Jancis Robinson says about La Vieille Ferme:
    http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a201011115.html
    Yes, the Perrin brothers buy the ingredients and produce the wine in large quantities. But it is nevertheless made using traditional methods (no new oak, no oak chips, no barriques) in a style that is typical of traditional Southern Rhone wines.

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  4. Fred,
    I do not disagree; it was just a question. I'm not familiar with this wine. I see it at every grocery store, therefore I thought it is produced in industrial quantity. I will surely give it a try.
    Thanks, Nico

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  5. It is truly amazing that La Vieille Ferme is so widely available at such an inexpensive price. I visited Chateau Beaucastel when I visited the Southern Rhone in 1992, and the Perrin brothers poured a glass of it (along with Beaucastel and Coudoulet de Beaucastel) in their tasting room. They started producing this wine 35 years ago with the idea of offering an inexpensive every day Cotes du Rhone. They later shifted to Cotes du Ventoux where there are even more plentiful quantities of good, inexpensive grapes. I think LVF wines are as good and as authentic (in terms of Southern Rhone tradition) as they were when I first started buying them in the early 1980s.

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  6. Brilliant! This is my favorite post this week. Cheers for the mention!

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