Tuesday Tasting: Marius, 2011

Marius

Vintage: 2011

Region: France

Alcohol: 13.5

Price: $19.95

It's another Tasting Tuesday at A Bit of Wine. Today we are drinking Marius, a 2011 Rhone style red wine from the South of France. This is your typical French style wine with bold tannin and  rich oak flavors, a hint of smoke and bold ripe black fruit that punches the palate. This one is not bad for the price.

Notes on the Nose (What do you smell?)

Right out of the bottle, alcohol is heavy on the nose followed swiftly by a waft of black cherry and currant. 

SIDE NOTE: This initial smell of alcohol is a good indicator of a descent bottle of wine. With some time in the decanter – about 30 minutes – the wine will open to the truer flavors intended for the vintage. Another cool trick to test the alcohol content is to pour a glass, swirl it, and watch the legs (or how the wine drips down the interior of the glass). If the legs move fast, the wine tends to have more sugar and less alcohol. Slower paced legs indicates a higher alcohol content and lower in sugar.

Back to the Bottle

This bottle of Marius is nicely crafted. After giving it 15 minutes to breathe, the alcohol smell has diminished and the scent of caramel and under notes of vanilla with a lot of green peppercorn. As the bottle aerates the flavor profile becomes well rounded with the peppercorn balancing out with the vanilla caramel. The tannins smooth out and become creamy and just slightly buttery.

Pairing for the Palate

Perhaps for those readers who like a dryer red wine, Marius makes a mean glass to enjoy throughout the evening. For us this is a food wine. Its bold flavor profile lends itself to being paired with a meal that will balance its boldness. We’d pair this with rich flavors of French style cuisine, so some brandy pepper steak with sweet potato frawns on the side.

How Does it Rate?

Flavor Profile:   6

Drinkability:     6

Affordability:    7

Total:           6.3

While not a bad bottle, the boldness lends itself to a select few dropping the drinkability scale while the imbalance of alcohol and black fruits leaves the flavor profile a little time for aging.

We hope you are enjoying our Tasting Tuesdays. Please leave us a comment & tell us what you think.

Cheers!

Keith

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