"Les Calcinaires", vin de pays (Roussillon), 2003, Domaine Gauby.

Another in the series purchased from the Kempen wijnhuis. Bought blind, based on the recommendation from the wine merchant. According to Andrew Jefford in 'The New France': "The burly and exuberant Gerard Gauby's 32-ha biodynamic estate based at Calce is not only one of the best estate in Roussillon, but also one of the finest domains in Southern France. Gauby ensures very low yields by hard pruning and green harvesting. He also sorts is precious harvest grape by grape... Gauby has eased back slightly on the power of his extraction over the last few vintages, providing wines of greater sumptuousness and less brute force."

Well, well, well. High praise indeed. I found other references of the domaine (the name of which I just recently learned) on Jancis Robinson's web site, 1855.com, and the wine doctor to name a few. My local wine merchant herself coudn't say enough about the attention to detail and quality this domaine, and these wine makers, put into their wines. She only had a white on hand but from the looks of those available from 1855.com, I should try to find the reds as well.

As for the wine, it's a unique blend of 50% muscat, 30% chardonnay, and 20% macabeo. It's very assertive in the nose with lime, minerals, lychee, and white chocolate. In the mouth it's fat, with that prickly muscat aspect framing its large frame. It touches all parys of the palate. A broad wine, dry, with lively acidity to keep it fresh, and it finishes with licorice and pepper spice. It's a big and off-beat wine that sells for 12.95 euro.

While tasting I wondered what I would serve it with and moules marinees got stuck in my mind for some reason. I think it would go great with that, in it's classic shallot and white wine version. (Or maybe I've seen too many ads for moules frites around here!) Will everyone like it? Definitly not, but I think it's interesting enough to try and share with some adventurous wine lovers.