Wine night with Hart, Sean, Tabs, Ben and SM.

This was a tricky one to rate. I brought this because I wanted something young and bright, ahead of 2 very old wines.

In the glass: bright orangey garnet. Clear. Very light bodied.

On the nose: fresh off the bottle, bright tart cherry. Slightly muted, but very pure and linear. (I served it too cold hehehe). The surprising thing that stood out to me was how sharp the alcohol was. Weird.

Nursed the wine in glass for 30 mins: sudden uptick in the intensity of the nose. Interesting tobacco notes at the end of a deep inhale. Minerality.

On the palate: bone dry, mid+ acidity. Super energetic and fresh. Tannins are grippy+, but pleasantly palatable.

As we got closer to the 2.5 hours mark, the wine kept developing and intensifying in its aromas. Interesting, it started developing this super enjoyable dried fruit notes at the end, plus a fresh greenish strawberry note. These, coupled with the earthy tobacco notes really made this waaaay more complex that I was expecting.

The single biggest flaw that kept bugging me was how sharp and not well integrated the alcohol was. It’s even more jarring given that it’s a 13.5%. Not sure if it’s the winemaking, or if this is simply too young still.

The unexpectedly complex nose (this needs a lot a lot of air!!!) made me want to give this a strong 4.2. But I have to dock points for that alcohol. Shame!