Excellent bottle of wine. Still very dark in the glass, the nose is black cherry and mineral. The flavors remind of blood orange, forest floor and mushroom. In the mouth the wine is lithe, in no way heavy, but mouth-coating and full of flavor. The wine still seems a bit primary, but it is a pleasure to drink now. I think the wine is youthful and will cellar for a long time, but it is anyone’s guess (and perhaps a matter of personal preference) whether more cellar time will make it more enjoyable. I think it is great now, but I have more bottles and will save a few for five or more years.
Hi Brad - Had this wine with 2 other people over the New Year’s weekend and I concur will your evaluation of the wine. It was a smokin good bottle of wine. It was better than the 2008 Bearwallow and at 2006 Home that we also opened.
Todd – It sounds like you were drinking well to ring in the new year.
I have yet to open a Home (I think my first opportunity to purchase was the '10 vintage), but I have drunk the ‘08 Bearwallow many times and enjoyed it well enough. As I recall, it was Rhys’ first vintage from that site, and the Rhys team didn’t control the farming aspect until later on.
I wouldn’t expect this wine to show any other way at this point in time than young and primary. Glad to hear it is tasty in its infancy. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I hear you, but it was much more approachable than a '08 Alpine I had last year. I have a bunch of '10s, so I was not terribly worried about my blatant act of infanticide. It is useful to me to drink some of these wines in their youth if for no reason other than to help me rationalize future purchases.
Yup, I’m with ya’ (but I try to keep my infanticide to the 375’s that I’m thankful Rhys sells and releases prior to the regular 750 offers). And I totally agree re: the '08 — a bottle I opened, well — geez — a couple years ago, now — just about required a crowbar to get it to open up a little.