Over the past two nights we’ve had the 2005 Leon Barral, Faugeres, Jadis. An intense, wild, brambly blackberry nose, the deepest, darkest Carignane-based wine I’ve tried (50% Carignane, 30% Syrah, 20% Grenache), showing gamey meat, garrigue, blood, smoke, and leather. Intense, very deep, dark, and tannic on the palate, especially the first night. Brambly blackberry fruit, black pepper, game, iodine/blood, baseball glove and smoky bacon on the palate. Just far too young, I wish I had enough to follow this over the next 20 years, as I think this will be a true vin de garde, although right now it’s even a little too big for lamb chops and Flannery hangar steak (amazing, BTW). I expected this to be younger than the 2008 I tried last month, but didn’t expect this level of intensity and youthfulness. Approx…94-95.
Marshall.
Thanks for this. I happened to get my hands on a 2010 Faugeres last year and was wondering when it might be ready. Your note says it all.
Cheers,
Doug
Doug, is this the normale? If so, that wine is usually more accessible and less structured than the Jadis, although no less delicious. I posted a note on the 2005 normale last year:
Compared to the Jadis from the same vintage ('05 was a structured vintage in general here), this was much more open and accessible, although it should still develop for a few years. Your '10 might be starting to drink nicely (I have a couple of bottles but haven’t tried one since I sold the wine back in 2013), but will surely improve until at least its 15th birthday.
Lovely to see some praise here for Didier, great person, great wines. Real agers as well, although the “village Faugeres” tends to drink really well even quite early on. I don’t have a lot of the older stuff left, which I greatly regret, but I think there’s still a bottle of the 2001 Valliniere buried somewhere in my cellar ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
When this stuff is on, it’s crazy good!
Seconded - although I must’ve had the wines only when they’re on, because all the Barral wines I’ve had have been terrific!
Should get some more, as currently I have only one bottle in my cellar. 
And like you, I don’t have much, and then always say, “why don’t I buy more of it”.
He seems so passionate about his wines, and the land that they are on. He also makes some mean charcuterie from the pigs on his property.
You evil people. There’s actually a shop selling Barral a ten-minute walk from my house and I’m broke enough as I am 
You poor lucky bastard! 
A bizarre data point. I go back a reasonably long way with these wines (first Barral vintage tasted '99, I think) and I regularly seem to prefer the entry-level Faugeres bottling over Jadis. Jadis is definitely a great wine, but I think it’s the entry-level that overperforms massively.
Broke drunk and happy ain’t bad!
You sell me that T-shirt, I’m a buyer, Sir.
Here’s another
Marshall,
I think my 2010 Faugeres is the normale (got to dig it out). Thanks for the information.
The T shirt idea is very intriguing.
Cheers,
Doug
Crazy. Drank the 2016 Faugeres last night. Fantastic bottle of wine that still has years of life ahead of it, which is a hell of a thing to pull off.
Are we to assume you’ve already had a tasting note titled “Carignane my wayward son”?