Community Tasting Note

pavel_p Likes this wine:

Friday, June 9, 2017 - Opened the bottle in the morning and put the cork back in as it seemed quite open, and then brought the wine to our anniversary dinner. The sommelier took out the cork upon arrival but did not decant and hence the wine got only a little bit more air over the next hour as we started with white before moving to a number of main courses with the red.

This is a very clear/clean garnet in the glass with a 2-3mm wide transparent rim already. A fragrant and pretty Bordeaux nose is followed by a wonderfully delineated palate, which is very Graves with the evident leafiness, red and dark fruit and the usual touch of toasted oak. Tannins are nicely integrated already. While the flavor profile is very Graves / Bordeaux, the style is almost like a young Burgundy with a beautiful brightness and clarity to all the different flavors of the wine. The only downside of such strict delineation is a certain hardness on the mid palate. Hence I initially thought the wine might still have some upside, as this would certainly soften with more age / air. When it did soften though, towards the end of our dinner, with more leather and tobacco notes now coming through, the wine also lost its distinct delineation somewhat, and the relative weakness of the vintage became more evident as this is not a wine of depth but rather of clarity.

Overall I think this is a great success in the context of the vintage, thanks to the team at La Mission taking a gentle approach when working with the vintage and material at hand and not trying to force it into becoming something else. This 07 is certainly good for another decade or two but as mentioned, I doubt it will improve, it will just change in appearance and might become somewhat less special in my eyes. If you have this in your cellar, would definitively try now with only a short decant.

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