Catch the Kacher Selections,
With Cosmopolitan Catering

By Kathy Ward

Tasting Card

January's Enological Society wine tasting was such a success - a sellout to be exact - that the Program Committee decided to do a follow-on French tasting this month. We have a lineup of selections from the Robert Kacher portfolio, so discover some overlooked producers this renowned importer has found for us.

Guest speakers are Esquin Wine Merchants wine buyer Cory Flener, who recently accompanied Kacher on a whirlwind tour of nearly 70 wineries throughout Southern France, and Noble Estates sales rep Pasquale Cognetta, who also has done the famous Kacher touring. They will enlighten us with the wine value coming out of this region, and maybe even share some anecdotes about their esteemed guide.

Kacher covers about 20 thousand miles a year visiting France several times, tasting his way through cellars of many vigneronne (vine-growers). He selects a mere handful with whom he does business. Seeking out producers who are as obsessed as he is about quality rather than quantity, Kacher forms an alliance with growers who have the passion and energy to become France's renowned winemakers. These are the wines he brings to American consumers.

A decade ago, wine writer Robert M. Parker Jr. said that Kacher's name on a wine was "as close to an endorsement of quality as one is likely to find in the complicated world of wine." Parker recently named Kacher one of the world's most influential wine personalities of the last 20 years.

The New York Wine Cellar publication echoes the acclamation, stating, "… the Robert Kacher Selections imprint on a label is a virtual guarantee of high quality wine." Others note that, as a purist and an idealist, Kacher runs counter to the wine import establishment, and lovers of fine wine are lucky to have him on their side.

With this "merchant to maker" approach, Kacher works one-on-one with selected small growers and individual farmers by funding and helping them achieve quality production for export wines.

Cory believes we will learn what a great value the excellent Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre coming out of these lesser-known regions can be to our everyday wine budgets. For example, Nîmes, just 10 miles from the Mediterranean, is outside the Appellation d'origine Contrôlee (A.O.C.) laws of Côtes du Rhône that control production and pricing. But Nîmes (with less expensive real estate) enjoys a warm, almost tropical, climate that contributes to strong, spicy Syrah and Grenache comparable to that of the sun-baked granite and pebbly terraced fields of the Rhône.

Thus, Nîmes produces a bargain in the bottle. The lavishly fruited Mas des Bressades Vin de Pays du Gard selling for less than $10, is a 50-50 blend of Grenache and Syrah grown in Costières du Nîmes. Some of their Syrah vines are 60-plus years old, typical of such stock in the region. "A consistent winner" is how The Wine Advocate refers to this estate.

And Provence is proving that what's old is new again. Phoenicians planted the first grape stock there 600 years before Christ, vineyards flourished during Roman rule (Julius Caesar commented about them in his Gallic War writings), and throughout the Middle Ages, wines of Provence were among the most prestigious in France.

Today's Côtes de Provence gained A.O.C. status in 1977. Our tasting card includes a $9 oak-aged rich and complex Chardonnay from Domaine Gournier, which is located between Avignon and Nîmes where the landscape becomes low limestone hills. The grower, a vine rootstock and clone expert, was a pioneer in replacing old high-yielding varietals with low-production types for more intense flavors.

Also from Provence are the dry Rosé and a Cuvée Tradition from Domaine Richeaume, a grower committed to organic farming and winemaking who uses no pesticides or herbicides. Both wines are a Syrah/Grenache/Cinsault blend.

Rounding out the tasting is the 60-40 Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah cuvée by Domaine De Montpezat Prestige. Plantings in a warm microclimate on gravelly, barren slopes produce clear flavors with depth and concentration that are the hallmark of this estate. Parker says the wine is a "blockbuster offering."

Click here to see a list of past Seattle Programs