Happy ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Day from northwest NJ. Wahoowa!
I spotted this bottle as well as a more recent vintage (2020 I think?) at a store local to me. I’ve heard of the producer but wasn’t really familiar so I gave it a shot for $59.99.
The wine was decanted and I was patient enough to wait about 10 minutes to start drinking.
Visually, the wine is still pretty pure ruby; there’s no brick/garnet rim variation quite yet. It has pretty deep color concentration with an almost opaque core. There’s fairly heavy tearing with minimal staining.
The wine has what I’d call medium aromatic intensity. The nose is mostly turned potting soil and savory herbs – thyme, lavender. On the palate there’s pronounced flavor intensity which mirrors the nose but with much more fruit – a combination of ripe blue fruit and dried red fruit/raisins. I don’t smell or taste any new oak; I’m not sure if there is any because I couldn’t find a tech sheet for this vintage and the info on the producer website was relatively vague for more recent vintages.
Tannin level is high and still fairly sandpaper-y; they’ve not yet mellowed all that much. Acid is squarely medium. Alcohol is medium+ (listed on the bottle as 14.5%). The wine is full bodied.
I don’t drink a lot of southern Rhone wines generally but I’d call this fairly stylistically typical, if not a bit more rich in fruit, both dried and ripe, than I’ve experienced in many other CdPs.
I’m really happy with this wine. It’s at a really nice stage in its development and I imagine has a number of years of life left; maybe the tannins will mellow a bit.
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Happy ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Day from northwest NJ. Wahoowa!
I spotted this bottle as well as a more recent vintage (2020 I think?) at a store local to me. I’ve heard of the producer but wasn’t really familiar so I gave it a shot for $59.99.
The wine was decanted and I was patient enough to wait about 10 minutes to start drinking.
Visually, the wine is still pretty pure ruby; there’s no brick/garnet rim variation quite yet. It has pretty deep color concentration with an almost opaque core. There’s fairly heavy tearing with minimal staining.
The wine has what I’d call medium aromatic intensity. The nose is mostly turned potting soil and savory herbs – thyme, lavender. On the palate there’s pronounced flavor intensity which mirrors the nose but with much more fruit – a combination of ripe blue fruit and dried red fruit/raisins. I don’t smell or taste any new oak; I’m not sure if there is any because I couldn’t find a tech sheet for this vintage and the info on the producer website was relatively vague for more recent vintages.
Tannin level is high and still fairly sandpaper-y; they’ve not yet mellowed all that much. Acid is squarely medium. Alcohol is medium+ (listed on the bottle as 14.5%). The wine is full bodied.
I don’t drink a lot of southern Rhone wines generally but I’d call this fairly stylistically typical, if not a bit more rich in fruit, both dried and ripe, than I’ve experienced in many other CdPs.
I’m really happy with this wine. It’s at a really nice stage in its development and I imagine has a number of years of life left; maybe the tannins will mellow a bit.
Cheers!