Tasted on opening - quite inviting on the nose, but impenetrable on the palate with a wall of tannins but promising fruit. After a two hour decant, the wine showed reasonably well on the first night. Dense colour and quite large profile.
Two days later - the nose is really open for business! A gorgeous medley of steeped blackcurrant, cedar and graphite. The palate is denser still, and in fact quite dominated by oak at this stage, as well as a pronounced sense of coffee. But the fruit is there, along with chalky minerality, quite bolshy tannins and good acidity. The use of new oak here (40%) is quite apparent now, but could well benefit the wine in the long run. This seems quite a rustic wine and provided a superb match for a rump steak on the evening. I’m intrigued to see how this develops - I’ll look forward to trying another in 3/4 years’ time.
Tasted on opening - quite inviting on the nose, but impenetrable on the palate with a wall of tannins but promising fruit. After a two hour decant, the wine showed reasonably well on the first night. Dense colour and quite large profile.
Two days later - the nose is really open for business! A gorgeous medley of steeped blackcurrant, cedar and graphite. The palate is denser still, and in fact quite dominated by oak at this stage, as well as a pronounced sense of coffee. But the fruit is there, along with chalky minerality, quite bolshy tannins and good acidity. The use of new oak here (40%) is quite apparent now, but could well benefit the wine in the long run. This seems quite a rustic wine and provided a superb match for a rump steak on the evening. I’m intrigued to see how this develops - I’ll look forward to trying another in 3/4 years’ time.
Dec 19th, 2022
Côtes de Castillon, Bordeaux, France
