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Thursday, January 17, 2013 - Another 2010 Southern Rhone that's really singing right now. Very expressive nose full of dark fruit immediately off the first pour. No need to aerate for long as it was ready to go fairly quickly. Initially showed beautiful, dense, ripe black raspberries that carried some real heft well into the midpalate. Notes of violets and gravel followed along with a consistent spine of limestone that kept the weight of the fruit from being overbearing. Some sturdy tannin and a small hint of garrigue provided a solid bookend to the deliciously ripe nature of the wine.

The alcohol shows pretty quickly but not in a negative way. There's a liqueur-like quality to the fruit as the wine transitions to the midpalate and at times is reminiscent of currant and blackberry but I didn't find that the wine ultimately settled on any particular fruit. It also evolved a bit on the midpalate as well with notes of charred wood, light smoke and graphite coming into the picture with additional aeration. There's a bit of an oak presence here but in a very complementary way.

Near the 2-hour mark the Grenache totally takes a backseat and the wine becomes far more brooding with as the Syrah brings in notes of dense blackberry along with a very inky in terms of texture and on the palate. It showed a narrow focus but showed off the contributions of the Syrah.

Simply a delicious wine that's rather modern in style. I continue to be impressed with where some of the 2010 Rhone wines are right now. Pretty opulent stylistically and has points of interest but overall it's just a seriously tasty wine. The fruit is really showing off here and my guess is that this wine is going to stay youthful for at least another 12-18 months before it starts to close down. It will be hard to not drink them while they're so young, but at least a couple bottles deserves to make the journey to the other side.

Highly recommended. I can't say enough about some of these 2010 Southern Rhones (as you can see). A joy to drink and an excellent value as well.

Edit: I've had this wine several more times with a good deal of bottle variation (including a corked bottle).

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