November 28, 2023 - Pulled this to celebrate my brides birthday. Treated with a splash decant into Josephine decanter that has a wide surface area.
This wine was rocking right out of the gate but as the night went on the tannins continued to build and the wine started to shut down over the course of the meal. If opening now, I would not decant but let the wine breath from the bottle. I think full on slumber is around the corner and it might be time to commit this vintage to the back reaches of the cellar. Time to reach for La Maison Blue...
95 at first with a slow downward trickle.
Hold
September 20, 2023 - A simply intoxicating nose of graphite, blood , iron. , cedar , and hint of white pepper . Palate was firing after 2 hour decant. Lush and thick chewy tannins, winding around blue fruits. Long finish. Beautiful now.
June 10, 2023 - Excellent! Charcoal, some petrol; dark fruit; really long finish
May 12, 2023 - Loved it. Very young of course but still a great wine. Dark purple or even black ink color. Nose had some barnyard, thyme and blackberries. Palate was dark fruits, some iron (blood) and a very long finish. This will probably age for a long time and will be really amazing in the far future as it is already amazing now.
November 10, 2022 - Young but very good. Bright red fruit, earthy barnyard, very deep flavors.
October 4, 2022 - Deeply colored, the wine is equally rich on the palate. With a smoke, licorice, blackberry, dark cherry, wet earth, and spicy nose to start things off, the palate is richly-textured with layers of dark, black, earthy, mildly, salty-tinged fruit. Powerful, yet elegant, refined, long, and deep. This graceful wine will age for decades. Another point, the wine shows no influence of oak as they have completely changed their approach to new oak for the aging process. Now, the wine is aged in a combination of 15% new French oak barrels, used barrels, and a small portion of concrete egg-shaped vats. Drink from 2030-2060.
April 28, 2021 - Deep purple, almost black in the glass. Ripeness again, like on the Cornas and Crozes Hermitage. Like drinking a well-made Barossa Shiraz. Something either went wrong with this vintage or with the winemaking style, but these wines taste nothing like Northern Rhone anymore. Still well-made of course, just not representative of an Old World classic.
February 16, 2021 - Opaque, of course. Very glossy again!
A little more serious compared to the fruit bomb first hit of the Maison Bleu: Deep, big and broad, some creamy oak here too, and more of that minty edge of the Saint-Joseph. Cool and poised, obvious power, a sense of layers… but it will want to time to open out.
Big attack, this is weighty and has great presence with real drive. Gorgeous silky black fruits, some sweet liquorice, more of that black cherry! Red elements too, plenty of mineral grip and super intensity. Proper.