Tasting with the pro’s

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to join Belgian sommelier guild for a tasting of Colombo wines (no, not from the TV show). If you say wine, you also say food… that’s why the tasting took place at Le grill aux herbes that gets a 17/20 in the Gault Millau Guide (very high score). When it comes to wines, I’ll have to be honest that I know more about Italian wines than about French wines… but now thanks to my blog step by step I’m getting more familiar with all the great wines France has to offer, like on last year’s trip to the Loire valley. Although I also learn a lot by reading blogs from friends of mine like JDR or wine chick Miss Vicky Wine (who has a cool new website) and of course also thanks to my good friend William Wouters (Pazzo) and the Belgian Sommelier Guild. Don’t get me wrong, not that I didn’t know anything at all 🙂 🙂 I did, but Italian wines were just more present in my life.

Anyhow, back to our wine tasting. I didn’t know Colombo wines, but it was my friend William who said I really had to taste these wines as they are very good and something I shouldn’t miss… So I followed his advice 🙂

Colombo wines are the life work of Jean Luc Colombo and his wife Anne who started in 1984 making wine at their vineyard in Cornas better known as Côtes du Rhone region. Since 2010 their charming daughter Laure joined them in making the wine and I can say for a fact that she putting her own stamp on the Colombo wines. So the future of Colombo wines is guaranteed!

An important grape for their wines is the Syrah aka Shiraz grape. The Syrah grape gives you a full-bodied and powerful wine. Just think of flavors like dark chocolate, black pepper, Arabica espresso. So if you are not a fan of this grape or full-bodied wines I’m not sure you’ll like these. I had no problems with it as Syrah happens to be (next to Nebbiolo, Corvina and Merlot to name a few) one of my favorite grapes. As I mentioned in the beginning of my post I was here with some people of the Belgian Sommelier Guild which actually make the tasting more interesting as you can learn a lot from the pro’s. I also ran into an old classmate who I haven’t seen in at least 10 years….

We tasted the whole Colombo gamma and I was surprised about the variety Colombo has. The only way was up, we started with their white “table” wine (maybe this is an understatement) and only went crescendo from that point to end with the top of the bill their “les ruchets”. I could start defining the taste from each and every wine, but there were just too many we tried and not being a wine blogger I’m not sure if I could put it in as good writing as my friend wine bloggers could do it… what I do know is what I like and what I don’t like and I definitely liked every single wine I tasted from Colombo What I can suggest you to do is check the Colombo website and see the technical specs, buy some Colombo and see if the tastes match and try to recognize them:-)At least that’s how I would do it (every excuse to buy wine is good enough). BTW if you want to have more info on where to buy Colombo wines, please check with Mampaey wines and spirits. This tasting has also learned me that from time to time have an expensive taste, eventhough I loved all wines, it must be said that the last two we tasted the les ruchets 2009 and 2010 were everything I look for in wine.

It might surprise you that I didn’t start talking about the food yet, but this time I just wanted to share something about the wines. But I’ll let the pictures from our food speak for itself. I could indeed suggest that if you are ever around Brussels, you might want to stop at Le grill aux herbes for lunch or dinner. You won’t regret it! My compliments to Chef Evan Triantopoulos.