Nose: Opulent fruits, wow! It is as if I have opened the most wonderful box of Provençal glace fruits. Which is not to say it’s a sweet ripe bomb. It is full of vibrant dark berries (the usual suspects)! Some floral peppercorns (kampot red pepper comes to mind, love to use those), cacao nibs, some sorrel (i.e. a spicy zesty citrus character), plums, luxardo cherry syrup. Did I catch a stray whiff of jasmine? My wife says no, it was gardenias. Who cares. The classic Gevrey earthy, tree bark and mushroom comes out with time in the glass. Animalistic wooliness is very subdued but present. Some cedar after the first hour? One really needs to be patient with this in the glass. It seems to switch what it wants to emphasize every time I sniff to glorious effect.
On the palate the trajectory dips and then peaks in the middle. Spicy, elegant red fruits, some lemon zest, pink peppercorns, a touch of cacao nibs. The tannins are fine and delightful. A pleasant and exceedingly subtle bitterness pops up on the way out. It’s a bit too polite on the palate, maybe?, but I’m seriously splitting hairs. Some age may give it more confidence, but this wine is singing to me in this moment.
Paired it with a spiced duck I dry-aged at home served with rainbow chard, duck jus, and green peppercorns.
I’ll be trying the 2005 in a few days to compare so I can update then. Hell! Now I need a Eurocave, a decision I’d been debating for a year now. I’d wanted to really accelerate my tasting before investing in cellaring wine but I think now I’ve got the preliminary tools to get started.
by Nolanola
4 Comments
A little flowery with the language, but seriously awesome tasting notes.
But hold on a second. Wine aside, that is the single best plate of food I have seen on Reddit in recent memory.
That looks like it was lifted straight out of the hottest Bistro in town. Well done.
Yeah +1 on the food and plating praise. Looks fantastic.
Awesome notes for an awesome wine. Just to expand on another commenter’s opinion, I think the notes were the perfect amount of “flowery” – sure they’re elaborate but they still make sense and are clearly meant to be fun.
I like the flowery notes myself. Bruno Clair one of those producers I am scared if people talk about too much will become expensive.