Excerpted from a recent article:
La Châsse is a brand of wines from the Pays d’Oc of Languedoc-Roussillon, along with selections from the Rhone Valley, created by the Gigondas-based Maison Gabriel Meffre. Although headquartered in the Rhone, Meffre has a long and cordial relationship with the wines of the Pays d’Oc through two other familiar labels, Fat Bastard and Wild Pig.
This Pinot Noir is sturdy, with plenty of ripe black cherry fruit, favors ripeness over earthiness, but has enough body and acid and tannic edge that it has some structure and depth to it. It’s discernibly Pinot Noir, a far cry from some of the early wines from this area that were thin and watery and lacking in character.
As a house Pinot or carafe wine it would serve admirably; and at an average retail price point of $11-12 the attraction increases. This price puts it in the category of “supermarket wines,” a term used by self-appointed wine connoisseurs. Gee, wines in a supermarket, priced affordably for everyday consumption, immediately drinkable, decent value, and popular, all from the same place where I buy the foods I eat on a daily basis. How practical.