It is amazing to me how powerful something as simple as the sense of smell is… how the scent of something can instantly take you back to a memory years old—like seeing an old friend after many years. You smell hundreds of different aromas on any given day, but every so often one catches your attention and brings back memories of things past. I remember years ago, when wine was a great mystery waiting to be discovered, and every bottle had something to say. Most of them were enjoyed and promptly forgotten, always another new discovery just around the corner.

Me and Pierre Varenne

Every once in a while, tasting through new this and up-and-coming that, with a few traditional wines mixed in, one passes my glass—or more accurately, my nose—that instantly reminds me of one of those wines whose aromas and charms I had thought I had forgotten about not long after discovering it. Turns out, some of those wines back in the day were classics, true in every way to their place and traditional style, and when I taste one today that reminds me of those old ones, it automatically makes me smile and without even thinking much about it, I already know the wine is for me. I am not sure if those wines in the formative years were better than they are today, or if those aromas and flavors were the ones I first associated with the wine’s origins, but I think they are better for it.

In the big picture, most wine regions, including the famous ones, have all adopted technology and moved toward optimum ripeness, more extract and softer tannins, which many of the wines 25 plus years ago did not always offer. They relied on a different balance of fruit/acids/tannins to produce those aromas that I can’t seem to forget, rather than many of the wines today, which can be, regardless of origin, more alike than different. Global warming? Might be. I opened a simple Cotes-du-Rhone this week, and as soon as my nose was in the glass, I knew I really liked this producer. No black fruit here, no oak, no berry and spice. The wine was like smelling a bowl of fresh roasted red peppers with some cracked pepper, and it is a smell I immediately associate with Rhone reds, although I don’t often find it much anymore. I remember drinking Brusset Gigondas years back and thinking, this aroma is so sweet and pure and obvious, anyone tasting this wine would see it. Domaine de Pallieres also made a Gigondas that was similarly striking and memorable.

You might stop by and check out the wines of both Pierre Varennes’ Domaine du Grand Bourjassot GIGONDAS and the Domaine de l'Obrieu VISAN CDR Villages.

The great wines of the world, regardless of price, are made to capture place…not cash, not ratings, but place!

Shayne Hebert, Central Florida Wine Supervisor. Follow me on Twitter @abcwineShayne