Community Tasting Note

• bretrooks wrote:

  March 10, 2018 - Not decanted, consumed over ~1 1/2 hours. Seemed a little bit closed to me, but it opened a bit with some air. Simple but rich dark red fruit, a bloody note, some oak influence, something ever so slightly medicinal on the finish. Ok acidity, very subtle tannins, a touch of heat showing. Decent QPR for a cocktail-type wine. My grenache-loving wife liked this more than I did...I thought it was ok for the style, but probably not enough so to rebuy.

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3 Comments

• frespa commented:

  3/16/18, 12:15 PM - Could the medicinal quality be the lot specific sulphur taste I noted above?)

• bretrooks commented:

  3/16/18, 1:39 PM - I suppose it could be a low-level flaw combined with the dense fruit. I do seem to be sensitive to certain types of sulphur faults. Cheers!

• frespa commented:

  3/16/18, 3:30 PM - Thank you. So am I. My wife can't taste or smell it. I have tasted the two lots side by side of the same vintage. One is very good as usual (I still have some 2013 and 2014 left and I know all the other Lafage wines). The original one which I told European Cellars about I still can't drink because of the sulphur issues. JM Lafage said that because of the high altitude vines in Miraflors, there is a strong cassis/black currant flavor that sometimes needs to breather for a while. After decanting and letting it breathe for more than a day, the sulphur bouquet and taste had not gone away. Following the advice sometimes given by some, to use a pre-1982 penny that had a much higher copper content, I actually ordered some 99.9% uncoated copper sheets. Since the copper didn't attract the sulphur compounds (hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans or whatever), I notified JM Lafage again in France and the very professional and understanding French wine manager at European Wine Cellars had me ship two bottles to them. They then sent one bottle back to France and JM Lafage had his enologists taste the lot in question. Strange they didn't think it was out of the normal parameters for the wine. Maybe it is a genetic sensitivity we both have. I can certainly smell and taste the difference. They are sending my a half dozen bottles from yet another lot. I"ll taste it and report back.

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