Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Saturday, January 18, 2020 - A blend of Mourvèdre (90-95%) and old-vine Grenache. 13% alcohol.

Deep, very developed reddish mahogany color with a brick-orange-to-yellow rim. Restrained, meaty and slightly oxidative nose with aromas of beef jerky, some pungent rancio, a little bit of dried dark berries, light raisiny tones, a sweet hint of cherry liqueur and a touch of wizened red fruits. The wine is ripe, full-bodied and quite tertiary on the palate with flavors of beef jerky, salty soy sauce, some crunchy cranberry, light umami notes of meat, light raisiny tones, a hint of sweet dark forest fruits and a touch of sour cherry bitterness. The wine might be quite aged, but it still retains impressive structure composed of high acidity and still rather firm and grippy tannins. The finish is quite grippy and tannic with relatively tertiary flavors of prunes, some tart lingonberries, a little bit of salt-cured beef, light smoky tones, a hint of soy sauce and a touch of raisin.

A still very impressively structured Bandol that is unfortunately started to go downhill in the fruit department. I was surprised to find this wine so evolved, since Pradeaux is supposed to be some of the longest-lived Bandol wines out there. Since this was acquired only quite recently, perhaps this was just a badly kept bottle then? If that was the case, the wine shows good promise based on its power and tightly-knit structure. However, based on this bottle alone I really can't award with a particularly high score. In its current shape the wine was rather overpriced at 32,50€.

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