Bacchus
The Seattle Wine Outlet features good deals on high quality wines averaging in the $20 range, but there is access to higher and lower tiers throughout their stores. They have 3 locations in Seattle including Downtown, Elliott Ave, and Greenlake. I must say that, I will pay the price for a good grenache to drown my taste buds, but at the Wine Outlet I found this gem for $10.
This producer, André Brunel, works with the famed importer and part owner Robert Kacher (Bobby) to create intense fruit driven wines near the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation in the Southern Rhone Valley, France. Their wines are mainly made from 100% grenache but this Vin de Pays wine is a blend of 90% grenache and 10% carignan. Bobby works with the growers and the winemakers to continually improve on the wines that he imports. For instance, to celebrate the intense fruit of grenache, this wine was de-stemmed and fermented in stainless tanks with little to no oak influence to retain and express greater primary fruit concentration.
What you get is a wine with a beautiful aroma of rose petals and flavors of dark cherries and black berries balanced with refreshing acidity and light but gritty tannins. I must reiterate that there is a complexity between the aroma and flavor that makes this wine a pleasing sensation. This would be a $20 bottle 1 year ago, but a dwindling economy plus large acquisitions by stores such as the Wine Outlet allow for great deals…. and in cases like this, steals.
