Banyuls Wine Tasting

Gary Vaynerchuk tastes 2 different Banyuls, red dessert wines from the South of France. The Grenache-based Banyuls are great value, under the radar dessert wines.

Hello everybody and welcome to wine library TV. I'm your host Gary Vaynerchuck and this is my friends is the thunder show a.k.a. the internet’s most passionate wine program and here we are on Friday. I almost did the couch but I don’t know. I couldn’t get there Mot. But the laid back Friday couch will make a cameo in 2010. So I like to reestablish it if I can. We’re going to be talking about dessert wine today. That excites me for many reasons because one, I have a sweet tooth not as sweet as my mom and my wife’s but I have a sweet tooth. Two, we’re talking about a dessert wine that I think is absolutely flying directly under the radar. Actually, way down in the radar. Benoule, Southwest France Grenache base dessert wines for all the ladies and the fellas out there that love the chocolate cake as a dessert, that love chocolate. Just love it, this my friends is the dessert wine for your palate. Clearly, of all the dessert wines that are made in the world, Port, late harvest Rieslings, sauterne, there is none that ahs the absolute beauty combo with chocolate that Benoule does because of the Grenache and the water of the grape. Now, Benoule which became AOC in 1936 and then created a grand cruise status in 1962 make some of the most interesting dessert wines in my opinion in the world. They have to spend ten months in a barrel and 50% of the wine has to be Grenache. For the regular AOC Benoule which these two are, 75% if they go grand cruise, now the grapes that you can use outside that are permitted in Benoule, outside of the Grenache grape are carignon, Grenache grix and Grenache blanc. And so these two wines, one is 100% Grenache, one right over here has a little bit of Grenache grix and blanc. So, that’s really a little backdrop to the wines. I'm a fairly big benoule fan. I think they’re really vastly underrated and can bring enormous value to the table. This is $7.50 and this is a 500 mL and for $23.00 for a $7.50 of dessert wine, that's really almost unheard of. And $30.00 for a 500 mL, they tend to be fairly well-priced as dessert wines go. Now, you're going to notice something, the red. So you know most people think of dessert wines as an orange-yellow pale white coloring. These are red based desert wines hence the Grenache. The Mindilla Casablanca, 2007 benoule aged in Bordeaux barrels, 100% Grenache noir. This is a very, very well priced benoule. I almost kind of scary like if I saw that I'll be like “wow like that’s like a deal that’s way too inexpensive”. But benoules don’t get too expensive. So, it wouldn’t surprise me either to see this price point. I'm being a little bit picky. Sniffy sniff, on the nose you're getting this really elegant kind of like milk chocolate meets like almost like a coffee cake thing going on here on this nose and then some bright kind of raspberry and strawberry flavors. So red kind of fruit coming through, a little bit of the alcohol, brandy style thing coming through for sure, you get that with the higher alcohols of a dessert wine. Let’s give it a whirl. This one is 16/5 alcohol and it's this great—I'm hoping hopping a lot of you guys order this on Monday and are tasting long right now because I think you're going to be on the floor in shock. The quality of what a red dessert wine can bring to the table. This is kind of the answer to the question of like what wine should I serve my boyfriend or my girlfriend. They don’t like red wine. It's too biter for them. Taste this, dying to get your take on this. Grenache is such an amazing red varietal. We just talked about it not too long ago which Chateauneuf du Papes, its flexibility is just staggering. It is not known as a player in the dessert wine by 99% of the drinking public only by the nerds like me and many of you. And it really, really does some great work as a dessert wine. This is a much more attractive in price but tend to be you know $80.00 for a small bottle. 23 bones for this kind of dessert wine in a $7.50 size format. Break that down the dessert wine forms and in a half bottle which is most of this red wine consumption. You're talking about a wine that's a $11.50. Really good wine, I love the tannins, very easy, not unbelievable, not the most complex benoule I've ever had either because they can get really complex. But, good solid stuff, very serviceable. I'm going to go 89 to 91 points on this wine. I ranged it. I had to. I just can't really pinpoint it and I got cause spady-spade-spade in this show. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's got a great, great kind of tannic backbone. I can see a lot of people really liking this. Now, the next wine is surprising me already just on color. This wine is the 2006 domain dilla rectoire couvilion pas benoule, 500 mL, 30 bones, most Grenache noir but with a little bit Grenache grix and blanc. That’s how they kind of broke down in their website. So I don’t really know 70% alcohol but a little bit lighter in color than I would have expected, intriguing. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Kind of tight nose too, not much going on. Not as aromatic as the last wine. There is a little bit of like kind of almost minerality. Intriguing that I get a little bit of stone, little like cherry and strawberry, very similar flavors to the last one but a little bit tighter and a little bit more faint. Let’s give it a whirl. This is a little more off balance actually. The alcohol really comes through in this wine. It's not joking. It's much more serious of a wine. There is a more complex attribute to this wine than the prior one. However, the alcohol also out pops it. And this wine is just too young right now. This wine needs five to seven more years to settle down in the cellar flush out, put on some weight you know give a couple love handles going. I think it’d be a much better spot. 06’ here is maybe not, an 06’, that’s an 07 but obviously not as serious, a little bit easier to drink. This parse wine is okay. It's solid but the alcohol, the off balance aspect of the alcohol is something that we can't totally deny here on the show. Reviewing it at this moment in this time and did I even score the last wine? Oh yeah, 89 to 91. You know to me this really rolls in as an 86, 87 point wine, not feeling it. It doesn’t bring the thunder that I’d hope to. I'm going to give it a pass. I definitely prefer a glass of wine even though all my wine nerdness recognizes it's not as complex. But it's just doing a better job. It's just doing a better job at what it is. You know it's like you know a seal of fortune 500 company clearly is more accomplished in society financially and stature wise than a great five star chef, right? No question financially and maybe in stature in some ways. But, if you're the best five star chef and you're better than an average you know top CEO, that's kind of where I—it maybe not the perfect analogy but if you understand where I'm going with that. This wine is just doing what it does better than this wine is doing what it does. And that’s what it comes down to. I hope everybody has a great weekend and great—like a super bowl this weekend Mot. You know I have a sneaky suspicion based on the fact that I don’t think we were a very good throwing team that you can throw in the Colts. We have a great offensive line though. I don’t really know the saint offense blind but we could have thrown a lot more in our game. I wonder you know knowing Breeze and throwing attack. I think they’re going to have some success. Everything points to Colts. But I have a funny feeling and Saints aren’t playing that well but I have a funny feeling they’ll be able to score. I'm going to go, I'm still probably going to go 34, 26 Colts. As you can see, my demeanor just quickly changed recognizing that I was one victory away. You, with a little bit of me are changing the wine world.