Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Friday, March 24, 2023 - A blend of organically farmed Grenache (55%), Mourvèdre (30%) and Syrah (10%); the remaining 5% rounded out by a combination of Cinsault, Counoise, Muscardin and Vaccarèse. The fruit gets fully destemmed before the spontaneous fermentation. Aged in old, neutral oak foudres up to 18 months, depending on the vintage. Bottled unfiltered. 15% alcohol, 1 g/l residual sugar and 5,0 g/l acidity.

Somewhat translucent ruby-red color with a youthful blueish hue. The nose feels very primary with almost candied Beaujolais Nouveau-like fermentation aromas along with aromas of strawberries and raspberry jelly, some lactic notes of blueberry yogurt, light bilberry tones, a little bit of savory spice and a hint of sun-baked earth. The wine feels juicy, ripe and youthful on the palate with a full body and sweet, primary blue-toned fruit flavors, some boysenberry tones, a little bit of plummy fruit, light lactic notes of blueberry yogurt, a hint of soft strawberries and a touch of raspberry jelly. The overall feel is somewhat generic and anonymous. The medium acidity and light medium tannins don't really bring much structure to the wine. The finish is ripe, juicy and quite primary with a soft, medium-long aftertaste of bilberries and boysenberry yogurt, some earthy tones, a little bit of sunny strawberry character, light plummy nuances and a hint of kirsch. The high alcohol lends some obvious warmth to the finish.

Meh. This was just way too young and primary, coming across as very anonymous and generic in character. The primary fermentation esters effectively masked away any savory complexity, making the wine come across as quite candied in nature, and the lactic notes from the MLF were still very much to the fore, adding a somewhat yogurt-like note to the flavors. Most likely the wine will show a lot better after a few years, once the primary fruit flavors and lactic MLF tones have disappeared, but even then aging can't really remediate the problematic low-ish acidity and a bit too high alcohol. According to the producer, this 2020 is supposed to be an elegant vintage in contrast to the more powerful 2019 vintage, but for me the wine felt just generic, banal and too soft. Feels heavily overpriced for the quality at 109,90€.

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