This wine was a journey.
Gave it a 45 minute decant and it was still quite tight.
Some dark fruit, but mostly tannins and oak.
But as we let this open up in the decanter over four hours, it truly developed.
BTW, last sip was still a little tight, telling me this just may need a lot of time or maybe a very long decant.
But once this developed, it revealed a very lovely wine.
Still lots of tannins, but also lots of spice notes, cinnamon, cloves, elaichi (cardamom). Slight vanilla.
After four hours, lots of fruit, mostly dark fruit.
Dark plum, blackberry, dark cherry, plum skins, pomegranate skins, amla (Indian gooseberry).
Some slightly herbal notes as well, maybe moss?
The good news is while it was in its highly tannic phase, it paired well with aloo tikki burgers. The starch and fat paired well alongside a young wine that was opening up.
I'm still surprised how young this is drinking.
Feels like it will only get better with age. I have a few bottles remaining and plan to lay them down for a while.
If drinking now, three hour decant.
92+ points.
by rnjbond
1 Comment
Wow, over ten years old and still tight, I wonder what the prime drinking window will be on a To Kalon vineyard cab. I’ve been eyeing some up on wine bid but i was looking for around 10 years old. I might start looking for 15-20 year old bottles instead, but then I get more nervous about how they have been stored.