Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Saturday, April 1, 2023 - 2001 was a very hot and dry vintage in Beqaa: by mid-February the weather turned to much more warmer than usual with almost nonexistent rains. After relatively normal weather during the flowering, the weather turned hotter than average for July and August, resulting in 15% reduction in yield. The harvest was carried ahead of the schedule, starting already on 3rd of September. The Cinsaut suffered from the hot weather, losing some of its color; thus, the percentage of Cinsaut is somewhat lower in this year's blend compared to other vintages. As normal, the wine was fermented and aged in cement vats for 9 months, aged in oak for 12 months, blended together and matured for a further year in cement vats before bottling. 13,5% alcohol. Decanted for four hours before tasting the wine.

Quite dark yet moderately translucent and very evolved dried-blood red color with a tertiary syrupy brown hue. The nose feels quite old and oxidative with somewhat tired aromas of beef jerky, some dried dates, light nutty notes of rancio, a little bit of soy sauce, a hint of smoke-cured meat and a touch of old furniture. The wine feels old, tertiary and moderately tired with a medium body and somewhat oxidative flavors of raisins and dried dates, some balsamic notes of VA, a little bit of beef jerky, light nutty notes of rancio, a hint of soy sauce and a touch of mushroomy funk. The wine feels rather high in acidity with ripe, quite resolved medium tannins. The finish is quite long, slightly more grippy and a bit tired with very tertiary flavors of raisins and dried dates, some soy sauce, light sweet notes of balsamic VA, a little bit of beef jerky, a hint of earthy spices and a touch of smoke.

This has been a rather uneven vintage, some bottles being quite enjoyable and some rather tired or slightly unbalanced. However, this wine is getting so tertiary that it is obviously way past its peak. I wouldn't say the wine is fully oxidized, so I'm not marking it as "flawed/defective", but I'm refraining from scoring the wine. Based on my previous experiences with this vintage, this is not how the wine should be - however, I don't know if this was a poor bottle or if 2001 is now officially past its peak. I need to revisit this vintage in the future to see which is the case.

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