Community Tasting Note

• thelinebreak wrote: 89 points

  March 3, 2012 - A cuvée is a blend, but I’m not sure what a Cuvée Philippine is. (Literally, “cuvée” translates into “vat.”) I hope it’s good, especially since it has been decanting for three hours.
  
  But first, what makes up this cuvée? It is 55% Grenache, 35% Syrah, and 10% Carignan, and the grapes come from vines that are 10-70 years old. I hope most of them come from the 70-year-old vines. And since it is mostly Grenache, I’ll assume it is from the southern Rhone region.
  
  To the tasting! Allons-y.
  
  This wine has the color of a black cherry and is 90% opaque.
  
  The nose is smoky and earthy. I mean real earthy. I can smell the dirt from where the vines grew. There are also black cherries, strawberries, and lavender.
  
  Oh my goodness. What a texture. So soft. So round. So solid. There are no holes in this. The taste is steady. It’s not compartmentalized.
  
  I pick up darkness on the taste. It tastes like midnight in the Garden of Eden the night before the fall. This is the wine they would to need to drink after they were expelled. It even has a little bitterness to the finish. The finish is also dark and with a little pepper.
  
  In less metaphorical terms, it has dark berries, especially tart black berries.
  
  This wine is $13 at Mahan’s in Brockport. It’s well worth the price. I imagine this would go good with some woody mushrooms, like Shitake mushrooms. It will also go good with hamburgers, especially if the outside of the hamburger is slightly charred. I think it will also go well with kielbasa.
  
  The finish really dominates this taste. It lingers and it needs food to make it end.
  
  I can see why Robert Parker gave this 90 points. This is a typical dark wine that he would like. If you like, dark, earthy wines, you will love this, especially at $13. It is a little too dark for me, as wines Robert Parker likes often are. But I can see how he gave it 90 points. But based on what I like, I gave it 89 points, but I respect what it does.
  
  For a complete review, go here: http://thelinebreak.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/in-pursuit-of-the-juiciest-wine-day-110-domaine-les-grands-bois-cuvee-philippine-2010/

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