Considering that we were outsiders among the regulars at Bar Pigalle for their casual wine tasting event, we eventually fit in, for sure my Bride did.  I was just holding my own, as I have always drunk at my own pace.  Everyone that was attending the wine tasting was supposed to bring a bottle of French Rosé to share with the crowd.  At first, I thought that there were more tasters than wine, but even as hot and heavy as it started, the event seemed to eventually balance out.  We also reserved a table for when the tasting was scheduled to end, so that we could have dinner. 

Our contribution to the tasting was Chateau Mourgues du Gres “Fleur d’Eglantine” Rosé Costieres de Nimes 2020.  It was funny that there was a wine rep that was asking who brought the wine, as she saw her company’s name on the back label, but she wasn’t aware of the wine in question; which is understandable as they represent a very large range of wines.  I also felt good, that by the end of the evening there were plenty of “thank you” and accolades for this wine among all the wines tasted.  A former agricultural estate of the Ursulines de Beaucaire since the Sixteenth Century.  “Mourgues” is the word for nuns in the Provencal dialect and “Gres” refers to the round rocks that is part of the defining part of the soil of the Costieres de Nimes.  Francois Collard returned to his family estate in 1990, confident of the terroir and the newborn Costieres de Nimes AOP and his first bottling was 1993.  Costieres de Nimes is the southern-most region of the Rhone appellations and the entire region is based on the round rocks. The wine is a blend of sixty percent Grenache Noir, thirty percent Mourvedre and ten percent Syrah.  After the crush, the varietals are blended prior to fermentation.  The wine stays on the fine lees for a month and then is aged for two months in Stainless Steel, and there was no Malolactic Fermentation involved. I would describe it as a rose-petal colored wine with notes of red fruit and florals.  On the palate tones of cherry, strawberry, and raspberry, finishing with subtle spices and terroir.

Another of the wines that we tasted among the twenty-eight that were being poured was Thomas Labaille L’Authentique Sancerre 2021 from the Loire.  Claude Thomas began in the Fifties with a few hectares in the village of Chavignol and created his estate.  In 1994 his daughter and her husband took over the farm and with the addition of his family’s estate in Sury-en-Vaux they now have eleven hectares of sustainable farming.  The land is a limestone pebble soil on clay and they use twenty-five-year-old Pinot Noir vines to make this wine.  The wine is produced from a direct press and is fermented with native yeasts in fiberglass and cement tanks and then is aged in Stainless-Steel tanks for about six months.  There is no Malolactic Fermentation for this wine, and it is filtered, but unfined.  A coppery-pink wine that offers notes of green apple, stone fruit, and some pepper.  On the palate a tangy wine with tones of fresh fruit, zests, and ample citrus with a medium finish of fruit and terroir.  I thought it was refreshing.