2008 Dragonette Cellars MJM

Community Tasting Notes (12) Avg Score: 89.8 points

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  6/11/2022 - Seafoam Manor wrote: 88 Points

  This really feels like an early data point on dialing in their house style, from a winemaking perspective, as seen through the filter of the mid-ish '00's. This really seems big for big's sake and really isn't that representative of their more recent wines.
  
  Lots of vanilla oak, very full bodied, black out the sun extraction, gobs of jammy fruit, high alcohol... and not much acid to speak of. If I had a glass of this with a giant slab of grilled meat, I'd probably be happy, but this is just a lot on top of a lot.
  
  Probably best if you had this two years ago. For now, pair it with dinosaur sized cooking and split the bottle between four people.

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  6/11/2020 - Chrisinroch Likes this wine:

  Drank by the campfire w steak dinner. Served Too warm and the much talked about alcohol *still* doesn’t appear. I dunno, this is a nice job w Syrah in a “no apologies” style without being jam and alcohol. It won’t pass for northern Rhône but that’s not what it’s trying to be.

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  3/11/2020 - Chrisinroch wrote:

  Passive cellar since release. PnP
  Drinking nicely, none of the heat that others mentioned and Im particularly sensitive. Just a nice easy drinking wine. I'm not sure I find the value proposition compelling.

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  6/11/2019 - Seafoam Manor wrote: 88 Points

  Hard to get past the alcohol on this one. It is listed at 15.2% and probably drinks a little higher, which is a shame, because there's a really nice wine lurking beneath. Good intensity on the nose, very gamy and peppery, a slight caramel note that seems to be the last vestige of the oak, a touch of violets, a bit of plum and blackberry... then you get a big hit of alcohol in the nose and eyes.
  
  The palate continues a lot of the same. Pretty complex, with lots of blackberry, smoke, iron, a meatiness, a strong black coffee bitter note... and a mix of burn and slightly mouth-numbing alcohol.
  
  Probably better in its youth and this really doesn't have the stuffing to hold up to the alcohol anymore. Newer vintages of this show a greater sophistication.
  
  ***The alcohol was much better tamed on day two.

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  11/13/2018 - Papajakey wrote: 90 Points

  This was a tough one! Good tough though; complex. I was a little concerned that I might have waited a little too long to open; the recommended drink by date was 2016. I decanted for an hour. Although a little hot (it is 15.2% after all) the nose was full of earthy spice, tar, cocoa and anise. On tasting the fruit has faded a bit but the Grenache/Syrah spice come racing in and the Mourvedre adds a leathery edge. The finish is tannic, strong and long.

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