Tasting - Reserve Grand Veneur Cotes du Rhone

• Alain Jaume & Fils Reserve Grand Veneur Cotes du Rhone
• Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre
• Southern Rhone Valley
• France
• 2010
• $14.95/750 mL + $38.95/3L
• Cellar Tracker from the overall score gave it an 87.8 wine score
• First of all this came as a box wine, and I have never had a box wine before. Right away I could smell the tannic structure from the wine, and I could also smell smokey contents with a little bit of a meat scent, possibly a corn dog. The taste offered some surprising sappy essence with an unripened cherry. I also got some hints of licorice, and the full weight of tannins was present in the wine too. I could also get the smokey feel presented in the bouquet, and the heat of the alcohol came through on the mid palette. the final palette produced some peppery yet somewhat sour dinstinctions that turned into a flinty aftertaste. Overall I enjoyed the complexity of this wine.
• I did not have any food with this wine but I did would get some smoked beef or chicken with it.