Community Tasting Note
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Basil Ganglia wrote:
May 5, 2013 - Decanted for 45 minutes before consuming with grilled steaks. Purple color and opaque. The nose was very muted; a bit of earth, with notes of dark fruits. Also a bit of spice – most reminiscent of allspice to my nose. Maybe a bit of cedar. Some modest legs on the glass.
First taste was just before starting the meal, and it was not what I expected. Not much fruit; flavors just as muted as the nose, and what was there faded quickly. Some bite and heat, with just a bit of tannin arriving after a few minutes. The first adjective that came to my mind was “thin”; just didn’t seem like there was much there. I can’t say whether or not it was integrated, because there wasn’t much there to integrate.
The next taste came after the meal started. The wine came across much better with food. Detectable notes of dark currant, prune, black cherry, with a few brighter fruits peeping around the corners. Still not a powerful wine, and barely able to handle the steak, but definitely more character with the food than without..
Not much further change during dinner. DW’s main comment was that she generally liked lighter red wines (true enough, her primary “go to” red wine is a Willamette Valley pinot noir”), and she said this fit for her.
We finished off the bottle after taking care of dishes. By that time the bottle had been open for close to two hours. At that juncture there was more going on with the wine; the flavor notes were stronger and there was more bite. Also a significant tannin presence by now. Although there were more elements present, the package didn’t seem integrated to me. Everything was there but they didn’t seem to come together into a satisfying whole.
But in the finest PS traditions, we did end up with purple teeth!
Based on my notes I would say that this wine needs a significant amount of breathing time, and shows better with food. That being said, I didn’t feel this juice was anything special. There wasn’t anything that was discordant in the wine, but neither was there anything notable. If I saw this on a shelf in a store, there’s nothing that would cause me to put it in my cart.1,615 views