Community Tasting Note

• Tony Ling Likes this wine: 94 points

  April 23, 2020 - Different releases for this vintage - at least one in 2013 and another in 2017 to my knowledge. And this particular bottle was released in 2013. PNP into Zalto Burgundy glass ("Fruit" day): Medium garnet to the eyes with lots of fine deposits.
  
  Fresh earthy, herbal and savoury notes of seaweed. Nice underlying secondary red and purplish cherry fruits. Dash of fine spices. Some stemmy herbaceous and roasted coffee notes that adds to the complexity. There is clearly VA here but still within my acceptable range. Very nice bouquet in my view.
  
  Quite clean and refined on the palate with all the fine deposits, especially on the fruity flavours - a highly detailed spectrum of darker cherries and plums.
  
  Quite a serious effort here to me, and not unlike a high classed Syrah from Northern Rhone to the feel. Hard to put this under 93 points. Reserved for longer term observations.
  
  15 minutes upon opening, 2nd pour: Opening nicely with chocolate-like notes emerged and the first impression is really quite close to the Cote-Rotie 2015 tasted just a while ago... just without the youthful austerity and the extra smoky notes here. Good level of silky tannins too providing great grip of flavours towards the finish. Very interesting to observe the pour-to-pour evolution here. Upgrade to 93-94 points.
  
  45 minutes upon opening, 3rd pour: the integration kicks in with a highly mineral palate at this point. This wine appears to be very much alive with lots of energy to evolve further. More 94 points to me now.
  
  1 hour upon opening, 4th pour: wow the density of fruit really went up significantly now. Nicely powerful and very much an impression of a top Syrah from Northern Rhone with some age. Wow what a Beaujolais...
  
  2 hours upon opening: The fruits somehow managed to became more airy and even more detailed and less “natural”... They are not more Bourgogne Pinot like feel to it with more purplish and blue berry fruits with peels. Very interesting.
  
  3 hours upon opening, 3/4 into the bottle: just incredible how this bottle managed to get purer by every pour... There is something extra special that is honestly not easy to describe towards the end of the bottle - more red berry fruits, quite ethereal and just beautiful notes here. An extra lift compared to first opened. May be hard to imagine for most but for me this is close to 94-95 points now... For those who are lucky enough to have a bottle of this, please do take your time in enjoying this bottle, albeit it might be hard to resist finish it rather quickly.

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8 Comments

• Pey2001 commented:

  4/22/20, 11:03 PM - Thanks for this! I have a bottle and I was dying to know what it was like.

• Tony Ling commented:

  4/22/20, 11:59 PM - Glad to know that! My only advice is to make sure you spend some time to observe its evolution... Would be handsomely rewarded in my view.

• mikelikeswine commented:

  4/25/20, 10:34 AM - Love the super detailed note!
  
  I have a bottle from this release and curious if you would hold or drink now? Such a tough debate!

• Tony Ling commented:

  4/26/20, 7:19 AM - Mike in my view either way would be fine... The key in my view is make sure you give it enough time to evolve and for you to observe once you uncorked the bottle, cellaring potential I am honestly not too sure but I won’t say it is a crime to open it now ;)

• mikelikeswine commented:

  4/26/20, 8:38 AM - Appreciate the note Tony! And loving the tasting notes generally =)

• mikelikeswine commented:

  5/1/20, 12:01 PM - @Tony - I just realized the bottle is actually the 2017 release which is 3 years in steel vats and then 3 years in barrel. I'm curious about the elevage on the 2013 release if you have the bottle still? On the 2017 it is on the side of the label =)
  
  Will pop tonight and post a note.

• Tony Ling commented:

  5/1/20, 8:25 PM - Hey Mike yes I can come back with the details of the elevage data later =)

• Tony Ling commented:

  5/4/20, 4:41 AM - The 2013 Oct bottling reads: “Issus de raisins gamay, cultives logiquement sans chimie, ce vin est un assemblage de nos parcelles de BALmont et baTAILLES. Vinifie san additif, ni aucun autre adjuvant. Un passage en carafe peut s’averer necessaire. Temperature de stockage inferieure a 14C. Mise en bouteille en 10/2013, comme nous, soyez patient, il est evident qu’un elevage en bouteille ameliorera son expression. 13.7% vol, SO2 total non detecte, san sulfites ajoutes”

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