I stood this bottle of wine upright for a few days after it had been resting on its side for some years. I expected some sediment, and wanted to get an idea of its location before decanting. No luck, as my available light didn’t penetrate the almost opaque blackness of the wine in the bottle. I assumed that it had been stored with the label up, and began my careful decant with this assumption. No need for all this caution, however, as there was no sediment even down to the last drops.
My plan was to aerate the wine for a while in the decanter, sip-sampling along the way, and then pour the wine into the cleaned and dried bottle and re-cork, since I intended to drink it over a few days. I expected to start my sipping with a fairly harsh wine. I was wrong - there was a deep and savory black cherry greeting, which expanded in mid-taste, ending in warmth and lingering spice. Just a bit of a tannic chew also. Already enjoyable.
As I sipped away at a few ounces over an hour or so, the wine, or my perception of it, evolved to show sweetly tart pomegranate joining the black cherry, and an espresso-like taste and mouth feel at the end and aftertaste. I poured a full glass to have with tonight’s dinner of a burger with cheese and caramelized onions, with a side of potatoes cooked in duck fat. I poured the rest of the wine from the decanter back into the bottle and re-corked it. This is a pretty enjoyable wine right out of the gate, and I will continue to follow it over a few days.
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