J. Vidal Fleury Cotes du Rhone '06

Country: France

Thoughts: Perhaps you've noticed the new feature to the right, down the page a little, which spells out what I'm looking for and what each of the grades mean. If not, go check it out. We'll be here when you get back. (Pause.) So this is another new one that we picked up on a recent Total Wine run; my wife was kind enough to pose the bottle in front of one of her birthday presents, even if the West Coast Huskies were enjoying a bye week. So this is a white rhone, with a decidedly German-looking label. And truly this was an adventurous wine, but not in the way I was expecting. Off the bat, the nose was intriguing, sweet and floral and soft but also, in a way, crisp (if all four of those things can co-exist in a single wine). On the tongue, it presented a dry front but, at times, came across sweet too, mostly on the back of the tongue. The finish was a trip at first, dry but fading into a long-lasting honey. At that point, I was debating whether to go A-minus; it would've been a tough sell for me - just a little too straightforward and the occasional sweetness was too fleeting - but I went over it in my head. As the glass went on - and this may purely be the fault of my own taste buds - the wine got dry and the other characteristics seemed to disappear. At that point, I was downgrading to a straight B. But toward the end of the glass, those fringe characteristics have seemed to reappear; so I'm settling on a B-plus, which is where it was originally. Phew.

Do-over? I would be OK with that

Final Grade: B+