Dunnes Tautavel and other news

I'm laid up again. This time with a nasty stomach bug/flu, looks like someone is trying to ensure I don't enjoy the celebrations for my (hem-hem)th birthday. I seem (touch wood) to be over the worst of it and while I'm not yet in the mood to drink wine I should be able to at least waffle about it.

Also (touch wood again) I'm going to finally get to go to a Wine Australia do, this one, next Tuesday. I have a long complex relationship with Australian wine which has evolved as my tastes have changed over the years as explained here, and I'm looking forward to this evening followed by Liverpool and Lyon victories in the Champions league.

Firstly a quick report on the Chateau Camplazens La Garrigue 2004 we sampled last Sunday night. As the tasting notes opined, this was a fairly light wine (60% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 10% Carignan) but with plenty of cherry and herbaceous flavours. A little Chateau Neuf du Pape'y IMHO.

Next up a wine I used to drink a load of but Dunnes haven't stocked it for a while, the Gerard Bertrand Tautavel reserve 2006. Perhaps this is a different vintage to the stuff I used to drink, I can't recall noting the year. the confusing this about this wine is that it appears to be the same as the Tesco Tautavel I tried last week, albeit with a different label and a different year (2005) - see here.

The Dunnes variety is, and has always been on sale at half price for €7-99. One thing I discovered about it back in the day was that it must be decanted for a good hour. It is only at this stage that the flavours begin to emerge. I didn't really enjoy this particular bottle for some reason but I had bought three as emergency wines for Saturday so I'll try it again and see if its as good as the Tesco instance.