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July 07, 2004
Marcel Juge Cornas Cuvee C
Marcel Juge invited us in to taste in his den. His wife must've been off making lunch.
He had a bottle that had been open for a while, which we tried. We also tried the Cuvee C freshly opened, before tasting it against a Cuvee generique. Mr. Juge explained that he decided to name it C after talking with the folks at the Repression de fraudes. Apparently European law is very strict about calling it a Cuvee Coteaux or Cuvee des Terrasses, and he didn't want to get into any trouble.
One thing that struck me about his Cornas is the absence of woody flavors. It's all grapes. He explained a lot of things during the hour we were with him -- how to grow tomatoes, why concours are no guarantee of quality, where his affectionate cat came from -- but one thing I remember is his condemnation of overly oaken wines. In his opinion, many winegrowers allow too much wood tannin from the oak casks, tannins that never smooth like natural grape skin tannins.
Posted by Mark at July 7, 2004 09:42 PM