2004 Chateau Puech Haut Tete de Belier rouge

I am a big fan of this producer and I always enjoy having any of their wines. I love their white – Tete de Belier blanc (you can read my comments on the 2008 here) and the reds are also consistently very good: the 2005 Tete de Belier rouge and the 2007 Clos du Pic. Last time I had the 2004 Tete de Belier rouge was more than 1 year ago. The wine has evolved very well during this last year and became a delicious wine.

I had a beef tongue in my freezer that I was eager to eat so last evening I did a little bit of home cooking preparing a dish to match this wine. As this is a wine from the South of France – Languedoc – I thought a Provencal sauce for the beef tongue would go well and it did. The olives, capers and the thyme from the dish found similar flavors in the wine.

tasty beef tongue

2004 Château Puech-Haut Coteaux du Languedoc Tête de Bélier rouge

The wine has an opaque dark red violet color.  The nose is intense, balanced and developed with fresh ripe cranberry, black and red cherry liquor, licorice, bacon fat, black pepper and distinctive cocoa and dark chocolate aromas. A really nice mix of aromas. In the mouth this full bodied wine is round, rich, fat, with good balance and pleasant mouth feel, concentrated, lots of glycerin, with flavors of dark chocolate, blackberry, olives, a good tannins structure without being aggressive at all and even it has 14.5% alcohol it doesn’t feel heavy on the palate. The finish is medium plus long with a refreshing bitter-sweet dark chocolaty cranberry aftertaste. A delicious wine. 92-93 points

The wine is a blend of 75 % Syrah, 15 % Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre and aged for 18 months in large French oak barrels. Their yields are around 2 tonnes per ha for each grape variety.

Thanks for reading!