Champs de la Truffière

Deep ruby; medium intensity aromas of blackberry, black plum, blueberry, bramble, forest floor, mineral, dried herbs, vanilla, cloves, anise; developing; dry, medium plus acid, medium plus tannins, high alcohol, medium body, medium plus intensity flavors of blackberry, black plum skin, dried herbs, cinnamon, clove, old leather

My rating will no doubt increase as the wine opens up, but for now I am really enjoying it and eagerly anticipating it blossoming. This selection is 55% Syrah and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, the former seeing whole cluster fermentation and the latter seeing de-stemmed fermentation. Described as “sommelier catnip” this wine is nearly impossible to find and is quite age worthy. Notes are as follows: Black/blue plum, black currant, black cherry, red and purple flowers, raw leather, cracked peppercorn, star anise, damp clay, garrigue, and soft baking spices. A quick word about the anise, however. As soon as I smelled it in the glass as a pop & pour the first thing that came to mind was, “This smells like Good & Plenty.” This is, of course, fine with me because I love licorice anything, and the slight synthetic nuance to it only made it more relatable to the candies I used to eat as a kid (and now will probably get tomorrow at the gas station because I’m craving them).