OK. My first post of the year, and it’s not political.
It’s either a CdP or CdR style Cali juice (I’m not sure which). In general, I don’t do French. That’s just me. This was my last bottle from my club membership, and I thought NYE was a good enough night to drink it.
2005 was a good year globally if I remember correctly. This is no surprise. It holds up very well drinking nicely from 10:30 to 1:30. Medium body with a nice Earthy nose, maybe some spice. It had light tannins and a very long finish. It was not sweet at all with easy minerality. A guest claimed oak, but I didn’t really pick it up. There is baker’s chocolate, some chalk. Dark dirty tart cherries are there, blueberry and maybe cranberry if you stretch. It’s very Old World to me; serious structure.
We had this with some sledge-hammer French onion soup and really good eggplant parm. I don’t know if these should have been the pairings, but it went along just fine.