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Irouleguy AOC's red wine - Printable Version

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- wineaffairs - 11-08-2006

One of our friends just got back from southern France on business and he brought a bottle of Domaine Arretxea Irouleguy 2004. I must say I don’t know too much about Irouleguy AOC and only know it’s very close to the Basque. Anyway, I just want to share my thoughts on this very interesting wine.

When we first open this wine, its inky purple with bright rim. The noise contented very strong earthy and smoke, with a hit of red cherry and blackberry. When I tasted it, the tannin level was very high with med-high acid level. It’s very powerful and heavy body with an unpleasant muddy aftertaste. Personally I felt the wine’s tannin was out of balance and kind of green and simple, didn’t enjoy it too much. However, when I tasted it again 24 hours later, WOW, what a difference and I was so wrong! When this wine completed open up, it’s very fruit forward with a well balance earthiness, wet stone, leathery, black pepper and smoke. The structure is complex and pleasure to drink with my left-over mushroom sauce steak. I was very impress with this bottle of 2004 Domaine Arretxea Irouleguy and I felt it can be store for at least 5-10 years without going down hill.

This experience really got me interest in the Irouleguy AOC and there is not many wine shops carry them in the SF Bay area. I finally found one (Domaine Ilarria Irouleguy 2004) at K&L Redwood City. It sells for $13.99. I brought some and will taste one this coming weekend.

Some information about Irouleguy AOC’s red wine (Source: Tom Stevenson’s Southeby)
The local cooperative dominates this Basque appellation, which makes some of the most distinctive red wines in the southwest France. Surprisingly, however, the production of rose outweighs that of red. The deep, dark, tannic red wines have a rich and mellow flavor, with a distinctive earthy and spicy aftertaste. The wine uses Tannat grape plus at least 50% (in total) of cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.