“The decanter is your friend.”

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We love a good Côtes du Rhône. They have been our go-to everyday reds for more than two decades, consistently offering solid QPR (quality-price-ratio) that few domestic wines have been able to match, now or then.

I’m a firm believer in giving any good young Côtes du Rhône red some air. You can’t hurt it by decanting it 30 minutes before pouring, so why not? They’ll usually open up that much sooner than if glasses had been poured straight from the bottle.

This one is a perfect example. I got it at Plum Market a few months ago. It exceeds my usual $10-20 QPR range, but in this case, it’s damn well worth it. According to the Weygandt Wines site, Le Poutet is “culled from (Charvin’s) holdings just outside his Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyards. Le Poutet is so good that it often outperforms the top bottlings of lesser Châteauneuf producers.” I would not disagree, based on what’s in this bottle.
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