Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - Quite dark and a bit hazy ruby red color. The nose is quite noticeably stinky with reductive H2S skunk with underlying hints of ripe red fruits. The wine is ripe yet very dry and crunchy with quite intense and somewhat robust flavors of tart lingonberries, ripe cranberries, some crunchy dark fruits and a hint of leafy sous-bois. Fortunately the skunky reduction from the nose is nowhere to be tasted and the wine feels pretty clean and well-delineated. Overall the wine is quite structured with very high acidity and light-to-medium tannins that are surprisingly grippy. The finish is long, clean and fresh with pure flavors of tart lingonberries, ripe cranberries, some sappy greenness and a hint of leafy character.

A nice, but just too heavily reductive Saumur-Champigny. Without the skunky nose, the wine would be great, but now the wine shows only good promise. Most likely will be terrific, once the nose clears, but I'd wager it'll take some 3-5 years. Expect the score to be much higher once the wine loses its reduction. If opened in the near future, let the wine breathe for hours just to clear the stinky nose.

Post a Comment / View forceberry's profile
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue (582 views)