"The French would call this a 'glou-glou' wine," Eric Brown says, pouring a bottle of red wine at the tasting counter of his Chamblee retail shop, Le Caveau Fine Wines . The wine looks thin, limpid and cherry red — a bit more like, say, Tropical Punch Kool-Aid than cabernet sauvignon. Brown doesn't explain what glou-glou means but doesn't have to: the color and onomatopoeia convey it all. It's a glugger.
“I like this wine because it’s very seasonal,” says Brown. “It’s still warm out, so you want a bright, easy-drinking wine, but we’re starting to move into fall flavors. And the aromatics and personality are one of a kind.”
Credit: John Kessler
Credit: John Kessler
This wine, the 2013 vintage of
Poivre et Sel
(“pepper and salt”), comes from Les Vins Contés winery in France’s Loire Valley. “It’s 80% Pineau d’Aunis, a grape that is known for its white pepper,” Brown says, swirling his glass. “You can smell that pepper right off.”
The other 20% is Gamay, a varietal grown in the Loire but more famously in Beaujolais. It has a bright flavor that is sometimes described as savory.
This Poivre et Sel is definitely not a sweet wine. It may look like punch, but its peppery, gamey flavor comes as a surprise. Brown says Pineau d’Aunis typically accompanies blood sausage and andouillette (chitterling sausage) in France.
"The name in French, Les Vins Contés , means these are wines that tell a story," says Brown, who makes it his business to know the tales of all the small producers represented in his shop inventory.
The winemaker, Olivier Lemasson (“a real DIY guy”) worked as a sommelier and a shopkeeper before deciding to take a crack at making his own wines. He uses only indigenous Loire grapes.
Brown is a big fan of Loire wines, both white and red, and devotes a good chunk of his limited retail space to them. In every bottle, there’s a story.
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