Fine Wines of France Gift Set
With this gift set, we wanted to pay tribute to the country whose wines are the envy of the world: France!
So we selected four wines that showcase the diversity of its terroirs, with very different colours, climates and flavour profiles. Cheers!
Château de Saint-Martin Grande Réserve
- Estate and wine: Château de Saint-Martin Grande Réserve
- Appellation: Côtes de Provence Cru Classé
- Region: France, Provence, Côtes de Provence
- Grape varieties: Grenache, Tibouren, Cinsault, Carignan, Syrah
- Vintage: 2021
- Colour: Rosé - A peach-coloured rosé with golden highlights.
- Colour intensity: Pale and clear, with a lovely sheen.
A delicate, enticing nose. Initial aromas of violet, jasmine and rose petals, alongside notes of ripe vineyard peach, lychee and mango. An elegant bouquet.
- Body: 2/6 - Supple
- Tannins: 0/6 - None
- Sugar: 0/6 - Very dry
- Acidity: 4/6 - Lively
- Alcohol: 2/6 - Subtle (12.5%)
- Length on the palate: 4/6 - Fairly long (7–8 sec)
Old rose on the palate, followed by blood orange. A velvety rosé with a beautifully long finish; a gastronomic wine, ideal for summer meals.
To accompany Provençal-style sea bream, salmon cooked on one side, duck breast with cherry compote, or quail stuffed with grapes.
Hauts d’Artigny Plou & Fils
- Estate and wine: Domaine Plou & Fils, Cuvée Les Hauts d’Artigny Chenin Sec
- Appellation: Touraine-Amboise
- Region: France, Loire Valley, Touraine-Amboise
- Grape variety: Chenin Blanc
- Vintage: 2021
- Colour: White - A pale golden colour with green highlights.
- Colour intensity: Bright and clear.
A mineral, almost earthy nose. Plenty of fresh green notes. The scent of morning dew.
- Body: 2/6 - Supple
- Tannins: 0/6 - None
- Sugar: 0/6 - Very dry
- Acidity: 5/6 - Sharp
- Alcohol: 3/6 - Generous (13.5%)
- Length on the palate: 3/6 - Medium (5–6 sec)
Rich and full-bodied on the palate, with a generous texture. Its viscosity promises a long finish dominated by citrus and exotic fruit aromas.
Grilled or steamed fish (turbot and sole are particularly good choices), mild soft cheeses...
Château Saint-Roch
- Estate and wine: Château Saint-Roch Châteauneuf-du-Pape
- Appellation: Châteauneuf-du-Pape
- Region: France, Rhône Valley, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
- Grape varieties: Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre
- Vintage: 2020
- Colour: Red - Deep purple with violet highlights.
- Colour intensity: Bright, with a fairly deep colour.
A nose revealing notes of jammy black fruit, "pigeon heart" cherry flesh, kirsch, liquorice and spice.
- Body: 5/6 - Powerful
- Tannins: 3/6 - Silky
- Sugar: 0/6 - Very dry
- Acidity: 3/6 - Fresh
- Alcohol: 4/6 - Warming (14%)
- Length on the palate: 4/6 - Fairly long (7–8 sec)
Full and generous on the palate, with firm, dense, velvety tannins.
Lamb chops, Provençal beef stew, sausage and mash...
Château Valade Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
- Estate and wine: Château Valade Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
- Appellation: Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
- Region: France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion
- Grape varieties: Cabernet Franc, Merlot
- Vintage: 2019
- Colour: Red - Deep red with purple highlights, typical of Saint-Emilion wines.
- Colour intensity: Bright, with lovely depth of colour.
A highly concentrated nose with notes of blackcurrant and cocoa, alongside toasted notes of cedar, tobacco and vanilla. A second sniff reveals delicate mint aromas.
- Body: 5/6 - Powerful
- Tannins: 4/6 - Firm
- Sugar: 0/6 - Very dry
- Acidity: 3/6 - Fresh
- Alcohol: 4/6 - Warming (14.5%)
- Length on the palate: 6/6 - Very long (>10 sec)
The wine combines roundness with a lively palate. Fruit and pronounced but well-structured tannins lead to a cocoa finish. The whole is very elegant, remarkably refined and full of character.
Delicious with roast duck, tournedos Rossini or aged Comté...
Calculate your score:
You love wine, but wine doesn’t love you back. However much you sniff the cork to detect any faults, all you can smell is cork. You look but see nothing, sniff but smell nothing, swirl a sip around your mouth but taste nothing… Is rosé a mixture of red and white? There’s still a long way to go, but with practice and plenty of tasting, you’ll get there!
You’re certainly not short of the desire to become a true master of wine tasting – what you need is practice. There’s no doubt you aspire to be a sommelier, but your senses aren’t quite sharp enough yet, and all wines taste much the same. But don’t despair: if Bach could become a musical virtuoso despite being deaf, there’s hope that one day you’ll tell a Chardonnay from a Champagne. Train your nose and your taste buds – that’s the way to do it!
Perhaps you spend too much time deciphering the label and not enough analysing what’s in your INAO tasting glass. But you have a taste for adventure: you’re curious about everything and fearlessly hack your way through the jungle of vines with a machete. You make mistakes, get lost and fall down, but you always get back up. You have the enthusiasm of a budding wine expert: don’t despair, you’re on the right wine trail!
You’re an initiate of the order of fine bottles. You may not yet be a grand master of wine tasting, but you have the discipline and curiosity to get there. You might not yet detect subtle notes of yuzu lingering at the end of the second sniff of an obscure little wine with pronounced minerality, but you know exactly what you like and what you don’t – and that’s already quite something!
Your tasting precision borders on witchcraft. It’s as if you fell into an oak barrel when you were little! You’ve mastered the art of wine tasting, you’re well versed in the most advanced techniques, and your senses are as finely tuned as a professional sommelier’s. You certainly know your way around a bottle… Absolute mastery is just around the corner!
You’re the Mozart of wine tasting, the Picasso of the cellars of Pomerol, the Einstein of pairing aged Savagnin with Comté matured for 36 months and a few grains of salt! At a glance, you can tell Mourvèdre from Tannat. Your senses have reached divine heights: you can pick out the most unexpected aromas in any bottle in seconds. You’ve crossed over to the other side: you no longer taste wine, you write its destiny.
The connoisseurs’ corner
The caudalie is the unit of time wine experts use to measure how long a wine’s flavours linger on the palate.
For example, if you can still taste the wine’s aromas 6 seconds after swallowing (or spitting it out), the wine scores 6 caudalies. Can you count the caudalies of the wines in this gift set?