Hello fello winos! Very, very lovely wine to tell you about, so put your glass down and pick up a pen.

Chimeres 2007 from Chateau Saint-Roch. (The first e in Chimeres has an accent over it, so please if there are any willing francophones out there, let me know how to insert accents over letters as I am clueless.) This winery is in French Catalonia, near the Mediterranian Sea. Let's all hop into our imaginary planes and fly there, direct to the winery where we can enjoy this wine in huge quantities.

It's a mix of Grenache (65%), Syrah (30%) and Carignan--new to me!--(5%). In Barb math terms, Grenache + Syrah + Carignan= pour me another glass.

There's a lovely earthiness to this wine. The fruit is real berry; the true I-picked-it-off-the-bush-at-the-side-of-the-road kind, not the I've-been-genetically-engineered-and-am-now-sitting-at-the-bottom-of-your-yogurt-cup kind. But there's also a toasty nut, deep, lush, foresty, sexy flavour that makes you want to paint yourself blue, put on a sheet and dance around a bonfire.

A note about the tannins: I found them very present but not disagreeable. We barely decanted this wine, so it may benefit from an hour or so of airing out. I could drink this wine without food, but if you were to eat something with it, have something meaty. I was wishing for pate, but it would be just as nice with a piece of steak, or better yet, some of that lovely elk we enjoyed last week. Oh hell yes!!! I am absolutely 100% going to repeat this wine with elk! Genius!

This was one of Karen's picks--well done, my love! I'm happy to report that this is a wine available at the LCBO, so scuttle away, little kittens, and pick up a bottle of this woodsy nectar to enjoy for the weekend.

'Til next time!

B.