The minute I stuck my nose in the glass I knew I would love this wine. I had already noticed the translucent ruby color of this wine in the glass. Many red wines that are translucent enough to read through make me happy once I taste them. This lovely 2016 Tanteun e Marietta Farouche Rouge is no exception.
2016 Tanteun e Marietta Farouche Rouge — translucent ruby in the glass with generous aromas of cracked black pepper, tart cranberries and raspberries. Flavors, I’m happy to say, follow the aromas with the addition of blackberries, slate minerality and juicy acidity. Peppery flavors linger on the finish along with cranberries and raspberries. The tannins are smooth and well integrated with the flavors in this relatively light-bodied red wine. 12.5% abv. SRP $31
We opened and poured this wine without knowing anything about it beyond what we read on the bottle. That’s part of the fun, actually. Vallée d’Aoste Denominazione di Origine Protetta. Rouge. Annata 2016. No hint as to what we were drinking beyond a wild guess like Pinot Nero because of the color in the glass.
The aromas and flavors immediately took me back to two wines: Pineau d’Aunis from the Loire and to a Gamay Noir from Michigan that I tasted recently. That’s pretty random, I know, and I don’t usually have that specific a memory for the flavors of a particular wine, but these flavors are so memorable.
Peter searched our file for the tech sheet that is included with every wine we receive as part of our subscription to the Outliers Wine Club curated by Les Marchands Restaurant & Wine Bar in Santa Barbara. We were in for quite a surprise.
Winery owner, Federico Marcoz, named his winery for his great-grandparents, Tanteun and Marietta. His ancestors owned a mill in the center of Aosta that is now the home of his winery and they left a small vineyard as well. Along with his wife Alessandra, Federico tends 2 hectares of old vineyards scattered over 20 plots through the center of Valle d’Aoste. They farm the vineyards organically and use only native yeast in the fermentation of their wines. No sulfur is added to their wines.
The blend of the 2016 Farouche Rouge (Farouche translates to wild from French) is Gamay, Cornalin, Vien de Nus and Petit Rouge. Click on the links for interesting reading; some of these are very unusual varieties.
What a lovely wine! I’m so pleased for this wine to be our first post of 2019. It sets the bar very high and I’m taking it as a sign of more delicious wine to come this year.
Cheers!
