Domaine Houchart Rose 2008 Round 1 Wine 2

Minerality. - Is something that I couldn't really put my hand on, and a lot of time I call bullshit on people calling such and such wine having Minerality. Like the day I was at a NZ tasting and the guy was tasting a wine and nodding how good it was with great minerality, I was excited because I have been and am still trying to nail down minerality. Well to me it didn't have any minerality. This wine does. And A Ton of It.

The Stats:

Domaine Houchart
Rose 2008
Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah
13% Alc
Cotes De Provence
Weird Shaped Bottle, not the same label when googled on the Internet

The Eye:

The Colour is very Watermelon Juice very with maybe a drop of red to make it a little more red? Also can be described as watered down cranberry juice with a hint of pink

The Nose:

Day 1: Has the smell of Watemelon but the White Part, not the fruit or the green skin, Cranberry and a "Watery" Smell which I can deduce as minerality.
Day 2: Almost the same but a lot more open, not as closed

The Mouth:

Day 1: Now this is Minerality, it taste like a bunch of rock and Chalk in my mouth and its very interesting to say the least. Red fruit, Good Acidity

Day 2: Now this wine has opened up (half of bottle recorked in my wine fridge) opened it and there was some pressure build up over night. Minerality is still present but toned down a bit definitly chalky. A Crab Apple meets Cherry aspect going on I guess its the sweetness that gives that cherry'ness but it definitly is tart. And a nice little touch of bitterness which is nice gives it a nice balance

Overall/Reflection:

A Much better showing for a Rose then the first, The smelling like water is really interesting and cool at the same time. Good effort I like it when it finally opened up on day 2

Score: 88 A Very good wine, solid nothing bad to say about

THE 100-POINT RATING SCALE (Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate describes this in more detail.)

• Extraordinary (96-100 points)
• Outstanding (90-95)
• Very Good to Excellent (85-89)
• Good (80-84)
• Average (75-79)
• Below average (70-74)
• Avoid (50-70)