Early Contender for Wine of the Year

Though it may be early in the year to be thinking about this, the 2006 Jean-Louis Tribouley Les Bacs Vin de Pay Des Cotes Catalanes is going to warrant serious consideration for top honors when I do my annual "Wines of the Year" list.  

This blend of Grenache and Carignan shows a deep reddish purple in the glass.  After an hour of decanting, it had a big robust taste and continued to open up very nicely over the course of a couple more hours.  A wonderful taste of raspberries, a bit of of spice and a nice long finish made it a truly pleasurable bottle of wine.

This wine hails from the sun-drenched and wind blown Cotes Catalanes, which right by the Spanish border in France's Languedoc-Roussillon region.  Vin de Pay typically signifies a simple country wine, but this complex bottle is anything but simple.  While the Languedoc's reputation was hurt by overproduction of cheap wines, I'm finding this region can be a great source of big reds that are great values, if one keeps an eye out for good producers like Jean-Louis Tribouley.