La Bastide Saint Dominique Cotes-du-Rhone 2018

After my trip to Belgium (see previous post) I visited St Omer, and the town’s branch of Monsieur Vin (a small chain of merchants.) ‘I’m looking for the Montlouis Brut from Jacky Blott.’ ‘Ah, the Jacky Blow sparkling?’ So the ‘t’ is silent. I always wondered. ‘Yes, that’s the one – I’ll have two, please – and what about the Saint Cosme Cotes du Rhône? He gave me a boffish shrug. ‘I don’t have it. I think the Bastide Saint Dominique is better, at the same price.’

He led me over to the Rhône section. ‘I tried the latest Saint Cosme, and I felt… no emotion…’ I half expected him to magic a Gauloise from the air and take a deep existential drag. ‘But you have the white,’ I said, pointing to a bottle. ‘The white is good,’ he replied. At around a tenner, I added two to the box. He then bamboozled me with the breadth of the Bastide Saint Dominique range. ‘I’ll take one for tonight, and one to keep – your choice, please.’ He picked up a Cairanne (2 Arbres) and a Jules Rochebonne, the latter for immediate drinking.

I certainly felt emotion at the cork-pull snifter stage. That emotion was ‘blimey, it’s as tough as old boots!’ Two hours later, it has mellowed a bit. Maybe the air, maybe the runny Brie and Gorgonzola have battered it into submission. I think this might be one to judge tomorrow.

Edit: the next day it had indeed mellowed further and was rather fine. I wish I had some more to keeper a bit. That’s always the problem with only buying one bottle of anything…