2006 Cotes du Rhone Villages

Better is the 2006 Cotes du Rhone-Villages, which reveals sweeter black cherry fruit intermixed with some olive, earth, and mineral. It is attractive, medium-weight, and best drunk over the next 2-3 years. Although there’s been a change of ownership, with the Frey family (proprietors of Chateau La Lagune) taking over the reins starting with the 2006 vintage, and hiring famed Bordeaux professor of oenology, Denis Dubourdieu, to make the wines, it is still difficult to get a fix on just what is going to occur. The white wines seem to already have improved dramatically. The reds lag behind, and that will be evidenced by my reviews of the northern Rhone cuvees that will appear in a future issue. Importer: Frederick Wildman, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700