Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Saturday, April 1, 2023 - 14,15% alcohol, 5,97 g/l acidity, 0,95 g/l VA, pH 3,79. Decanted for four hours before tasting the wine.

Deep, quite dark and somewhat translucent brick-red color with an evolved maroon hue. The nose feels fragrant, quite dry and slightly oxidative yet not too old with layered aromas of sweet balsamic VA and strawberry jam, some Tawny Port-like caramel tones, a little bit of leathery brett, light juicy notes of ripe raspberries, a hint of dried figs and a touch of garrigue. The wine feels ripe, harmonious and subtly sweet-toned on the palate with a moderately full body and rather intense flavors of strawberry jam and very ripe raspberries, some bretty notes of leathery funk, a little bit of balsamic VA, light pruney tones, a syrupy, Tawny Port-like hint of sotolon and a touch of gamey meat. Despite its age, the wine retains an impressive, sinewy structure with its high acidity and still relatively grippy tannins. The finish is rich, complex and juicy with a firm tannic grip and a lengthy aftertaste of balsamic VA and wizened sour cherries, some strawberry tones, a little bit of dried dates, light oxidative notes of soy sauce, a sweet hint of soft black cherries and a touch of caramel.

A beautiful, complex and still impressively structured vintage of Musar that is consistently one of the best vintages in every Musar vertical it appears in. It feels like the wine has evolved to a point where it is aromatically more or less at its plateau of maturity, but its structure is still impressively firm and relatively tightly-knit. Regarding any further aging, I suspect the wine won't evolve much from the flavor perspective, but it might resolve into a slightly more open-knit texture over the following handful of years. However, based any further improvement is going to be quite limited, so any further aging is not really necessary. This is drinking beautifully right now, but most likely it will keep just fine for a decade or even longer. Truly a magical wine and among my favorite vintages of Musar from the past 20 years. At 30,59€ this has been a steal.

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