I’ve been putting most of my recent tasting notes into the “what wine did you open tonight” thread, but this wine deserves a stand-alone because few wines show up so immediately and compellingly delicious.
I chilled the wine a bit in the fridge and poured two decent sized glasses and let them sit along with the open bottle for most of an hour before dinner. We had confit de canard duck legs from Wild Fork, potatoes cooked in duck fat, and haricots verts. I tasted a small piece of the duck and reached for a sip of the wine, but for some reason (highly correlated with the taste and drinking pleasure of the wine), I finished half the glass in my first sip! I assure you that this was not a “gulp”, but a long, sustained, appreciative sip. My wife’s immediate comment, after her more socially appropriate sip, was something between a hum and a moan followed by an almost sultry exclamation “Oh . . . that’s good!” I suggested that this wine was so damn tasty that it should not be scrutinized and dissected, but just enjoyed. Nevertheless, further observations were offered: beautiful garnet/alizarin in color with a tinge of orange, wonderfully ripe and balanced fruit, perhaps a hint of licorice, subdued acid and minimal tannin, a lingering aftertaste turning ever so slightly baking-spice.
I expected a decent wine, but I got more than expected from this wine tonight.
