Caves de Rasteau Tradition Rasteau, regularly available at Vintages, used to be one of our favourite bargain-ish wines (about $16.95). It comes from Rasteau, which if memory serves is a sub-AOC in the Cotes-du-Rhone Villages AOC. (It’s one of the Villages.) It used to be one of those fun southern Rhones with a lot of character for the money. We’ve probably praised it here at some point.

No longer. We brought a bottle to P&C’s last as a complement to a delicious braised beef dish and, well, it’s gone all carbonic. They’re releasing the 2007 vintage now, which should have been our first clue. (It’s also been re-branded as Ortas Tradition Rasteau, with Caves de Rasteau in the fine print to mislead the wary.) Dark colour, forward fruit, no terroir to speak of, and the inevitable cotton candy overtones. It’s still drinkable, but it used to be really good.

Sigh.