Box Wines
A wine blog with news and reviews of affordable wines

Price: $17
Maker: Domaine La Tour Boisée
Varietal: 30% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 30% Carignan, 10% Cinsaut
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 13.8%
Our Rating: 8.5 out of 10

We tried Chateau Tour Boisée Minervois 1999 (Marie Claude) as part of WBW #33. From the beginning, this wine makes its presence known. It had a prominent nose, with berry, anise, spice, and caramel notes. Its flavor was a mix of juicy cranberry and plum with peppery notes, with a mineral character. Overall it was quite astringent and puckery, though the bold flavors and complexity balanced the wine to the point where the astringency wasn’t unpleasant. Extra breathing time rounded out the flavor to a degree, but some bite remained in the wine’s sustained finish. Our personal tastes lean toward the slightly fruitier, less dry offerings of California and Australia vineyards, but it was interesting to try the more European Chateau Tour Boisée Minervois. After this intriguing experience, I might have to seek out some other reds from similar regions to compare.

The wine is imported by Wine Adventures, and according to the commentary on this wine, “Jean-Louis Poudou represents the fifth generation of the Poudou family to produce wine on this domaine in the Languedoc region of southern France. The wine is a blend of 30% Syrah 30% Grenache 30% Carignan and 10% Cinsaut, with the average age of the vines about 60 years old. The wine is unfiltered and aged in steel tanks. Full bodied, the wine has the taste of dark fruits and spice. A wonderful finish adds to the enjoyment of drinking this wine. Food and Wine Magazine rated this wine a “best buy” in September 2001.” Wine Adventures has been around since 1999, and was originally founded to bring good French wines to Iowa. The firm now claims distribution in 11 states.

Interestingly, Domaine La Tour Boisée practices biodynamic farming - who knew? I should have hunted this one down for the earlier WBW #29, when I had difficulty finding a biodynamic entry and ended up with a pedestrian (but apparently fully organic) Fetzer Valley Oaks Gewurztraminer. Chateau Tour Boisée Minervois 1999 would have been a far more interesting choice.

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