2010 Domaines François Lurton Côtes du Roussillon Villages Le Pas de la Mule Mas Janeil

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 90.5 points

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  5/21/2014 - forceberry wrote: 91 Points

  Although labeled as a Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre/Carignan-blend, the wine is IIRC in effect a blend of Grenache and Syrah. Most of the grapes are vinified traditionally with indigenous yeasts, but part of the Grenache is vinified with carbpnic maceration. The wine is aged for 15-16 months in new 225-liter barriques and new 600 liter demi-muids.
  
  Almost completely opaque black cherry color. Extremely concentrated, brooding and dense aromas of ripe cherry, sweet oak, strawberry jam and sun-baked earth. The wine is really full-bodied, robust and extracted on the palate with very concentrated flavors of coarse, pepper-driven spice, ripe strawberry, dark cherry, pruney fruit, some vanilla and a hint of inkiness. The wine is pretty low in acidity, yet it feels very firm and structured due to its very pronounced, grippy tannins. The exceedingly high alcohol (16,4%) makes the wine feel quite hot. The finish is dark-toned, juicy and almost as powerful as the midpalate with very concentrated, chewy flavors of cooked plums, peppery spice, vanilla oak and hints of milk chocolate. The aftertaste feels even hotter than the midpalate.
  
  A very impressive, concentrated and literally humongous wine; this wine really needs to be cellared extensively. With its density not unlike that of a black hole, relatively low acidity and rather pronounced oak character, I shouldn't enjoy this wine much. However, the concentrated old vine fruit manages to cut through all that oak and the wine is definitely more about fruit than oak flavors, and even though this wine seems even more massive than a great majority of Amarones and other similar over-the-top wines, this is actually quite interesting in its own right. I'd love to see how the wine ages - probably after more than a decade of aging the oak could have integrated better into the wine and the overall impression wouldn't be as super-massive and extracted as now. Quite expensive at 44,25€, but might turn out to be worth the money, if the wine develops nicely in the cellar. Only for people who can enjoy monolithic super wines.

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