2001 d'Arenberg Grenache The Custodian

Community Tasting Notes (14) Median Score: 88 points

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  12/26/2019 - CBRwineguy wrote:

  Decanted for two hours.
  
  The appearance is clear and medium tawny in colour. Tears and sediment are visible.
  
  The nose is clean. The aromas have a medium intensity and show notes of bottle-age characters (old leather, earth, coffee, subtle smoke), fruit development (cooked strawberry), red fruit (subtle raspberry), and oak (subtle liquorice, subtle clove, subtle butterscotch). The wine appears to be past its best.
  
  On the palate, the wine is dry with medium(+) acidity, high alcohol, medium body, and low tannin. The flavours have a medium(+) intensity and show notes of fruit development (cooked strawberry). The finish has a long length, and features additional notes of red fruit (raspberry) and oak (coffee, chocolate, subtle vanilla, subtle butterscotch).
  
  This is a good quality wine. The flavours have a good balance with the acidity, but a poor balance with the alcohol. Heat from the alcohol dominates the palate (a wine of higher quality would better mask the alcohol). The tannins have all but faded, leaving the elevated acidity to dominate (it appears as though the acidity was strongly adjusted). The flavours show great concentration, as indicated by the length of the finish. In its current state, the wine has some complexity showing primary, secondary, and tertiary characteristics (a wine of higher quality would show more complexity). The primary fruit has mostly evolved into their tertiary counterparts and still form the core of this wine. The bottle-age and oak notes complement the red fruit core. With the dominant alcohol heat on the palate, you have to get the wine out of your mouth to truly appreciate it (as funny as that sounds). With the length of the finish, the flavours are able to evolve in a very interesting and enjoyable manner.
  
  The wine drinks well now, but is not suitable for further ageing. The wine is past its best and unlikely to improve with additional ageing.

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  12/30/2016 - chatters wrote:

  Supper at Ivan and Jo's - Jordan's tasting (Jo & Ivan's, Marrickville): From Coravin. Meaty, funky and farty; quite Bretty with some saddle leather over muted sweet berry fruit. On the palate its juicy with muted red berry, fine, silky tannic grip and alcohol heat on the medium plus length finish. Hmm

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  3/31/2013 - JRo Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Absolutely delicious - leather, licorice and smooth beyond belief. A long, lingering finish that demands more.

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  7/26/2010 - graemeg wrote: flawed

  As for last night's bottle. Thoroughly cooked. Corks on both wines came out very easily, although neither had even the faintest little veins of escaping wine. Nonetheless, high temperatures have done their work. Stuffed.

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  7/25/2010 - graemeg wrote: flawed

  {cork, 14.5%} I don't drink a lot of old Oz grenache, I have to say. Garnet, fading a little at the rim. This offers an initially intoxicating nose of kirsh and fruitcake and sweet compost. But the palate is rather acrid, drying and astringent, with metallic touches and a certain medicinal quality. There are no proper tannins and the wine is hollow and short-finishing, eventually becoming nasty and bitter. Oh dear me. In its defence, this is about how I'd expect a heat-damaged wine to taste, so while this bottle is pretty unpalateable, it's not a quite a fail for the wine...

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View all 14 Community Tasting Notes

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