This one I have high hopes for. A ten-year old Rhone, from a good producer. It was supposed to be a wine for a New Year’s Eve feast that in the end, I didn’t go to. (It turned out there were going to be people there.) So when a friend whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time (let’s call her PH) came to visit, that seemed a good reason to give it a go.
In the glass
Dark, deep. Garnet, perhaps? I hate technical wine colour terms, if I haven’t made that clear. They seem both too vague and too limited at the same time. Maybe brick? Whatever it is, it’s a deep, appealing colour. One that draws you in, and suggests this is a wine to be reckoned with and hopefully enjoyed.
The nose
Dark. Forest, cedar, maybe a hint of leather or something. My notes have ‘more woods than forest.’ What I was getting at, in a way that probably makes sense only to me, is it didn’t run the full range of scents you’d associate (at least in wine-talk) with ‘forest floor.’ Those mushroom, hints-of-decay and piles of leaves sorts of smells. It’s a forest that, like Trump once claimed, they raked to cut down the risk of fire, as they do in Finland. (For those with blessedly short memories, yes, he did claim that.)
PH contributes black currents to the discussion of the nose. (Most of which, the raking part particularly, occurred only in my head, and not out loud.)
The palate
Dry. Full bodied. Sour cherries. Something else dark red. Not a lot of fruit. Leather. It’s a bit closed a first, but that was because I was a bit impatient, and didn’t give it much time to breathe.
Very well made, well-balanced with good intensity, complexity and length. The wine improves upon being given time to breathe, showing more complexity.
This is one of those wines that it is hard to review, since I was too busy enjoying it. PH commented on how well integrated it as was, but apart from that, and going on a bit more about black currants, didn’t have much to add. Then again, she doesn’t like cheese, so her judgement is, by definition, suspect.
Rating
Yummy-plus overall. Visual – pretty. Enticing might be a better word than pretty, although it’s not a part of my rating system, so ‘Pretty’ it is.
Sustainability
I can’t find anything on their website about sustainability, etc. However, photographs of their vineyards shows grass and such between the vines, so there appears to be at least some nods towards sustainability and concern for the ecosystem.
The technical info
13% ABV Syrah. £35 from Cambridge Wine Merchants