Drunk in France: Notes from an American Boozehound

Matthew Rose writing for I V Y Paris

L'Ebrescade: For Adults Only
MARCEL RICHAUD (below) is one of those rare French wine producers who have made Cairanne, a Côte de Rhone, into a cult vintage. The cépage for
L'Ebrescade, one of Richaud's top-shelf vintages, is a blend of syrah, grenache and mourvédre. I recently tasted the 2004 L'Ebrescade and suddenly began to sing. If this bottle were a woman, I'd say she's rather like Lindsay Lohan: spicy, smoky and very sexy, oh and a little wild in just the right way.

Priced between 24 to 26 euros, the 2004 production for the L'Ebrescade came to approximately 5,000 bottles and is clearly one of the great wines Richaud has to offer. (Richaud's vineyards are relatively small - just 30 hectares). It's alcohol content is great, too : 15,5%, but there's no killing taste of alcohol here, just pure pleasure.

It is not a bad idea to decant this bottle, and you'll find as the evening and the bottle disappear that the wine opens up as you do, too. "It's a deep and dense wine," says Jean-Pascal, of La Cave des Papilles. "Think jam, lightly smoked, with very fine tanins." My partner at Lalande Digital Art Press, Robert Ruscoe, no slouch in the wine department, brought it over one night for our weekly three-bottle "business" meeting.

"What do you think of that?" he asked.

Ummm, well, "It's like a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but way less purple,'" I said.

"Yeah, it's for adults."

It was necessary to drink L'Ebrescade out of a serious glass (my five glass buckets hold 0,5 liters) because the aroma is so dense and spicy and I spent half the evening just enjoying it with my nose like an airplane glue addict. We used the L'Ebrescade to tame a roast chicken and had enough left over to take a bite out the roquefort and rinse our arteries. This wine just kept getting better and better and we were sorry to see the bottle empty out. Here was a talent. So...want to blow someone away with a great bottle, this will do it.

The 2004 can be easily kept for another 4 to 7 years, but why wait?

Caves offering the range of Richaud wines, including L'Ebrascade: La Cave des Papilles, 35 rue Daguerre, 75014. Tél : 01 43 20 05 74; Cave de L'Insolite 30 rue de la Folie-Méricourt, 75011. Tél : 01 53 36 08 33; Caves du Panthéon, 174, rue St Jacques 75005. Tél : 01 46 33 90 35; Mi-Fuge, Mi-Raisin, 36/38, rue Delambre 75014 Paris Tél : 01 43 20 12 06. Richaud Resources in English.

Matthew Rose, an artist and writer living and working in Paris, drinks (and thinks) to excess. His next show, "Small Works/Big Art," will be on view at Gallery In The Field, Brandon, Vermont (10 November - 23 December 2007)

L'Ebrescade : A French Lesson in Taste

Non loin de Chateauneuf-du-Pape, le terroir de Cairanne se situe au coeur des côtes du Rhône-Villages. "L'Ebrescade" fleuron du Domaine Richaud se compose des plus vieilles vignes de syrah, grenache et mourvédre. Robe dense et profonde, de couleur presque noire, aromes complexes de fruits noirs confiturés, d'épices douces et d'une note de fumée. Bouche puissante et racé, ample et soyeuses, aux tanins présents, serrés mais d'une grande finesse. Partenaire idéal d'une épaule d'agneau aux senteurs de garrigue, de plats orientaux épicés ou tout simplement d'une belle côte de boeuf grillée...