With Hart and James – pre-dinner tipple at mine before dinner.

Man I’ve been dying to try this specific bottle for a long time now. The plan was to coravin a couple of big glasses before dinner. To my horror, the cork did not seal post-coravin, and it spent 30mins just dripping wine from the 3rd top most shelf all the way to the bottom. Aside from the annoying cleanup, it also meant we had *~ no choice ~* but to finish the entire bottle.

In the glass: this beautiful almost neon bright ruby and garnet. My phone’s camera/software has a bit of an aggressive color correction, so it didn’t quite capture the garnet/orange tones.

On the nose: fresh off the bottle, a lot of sweet prune-ish plum. I didn’t like it that much. Almost a little oxidative. But what a transformation in the glass with air! Sweet cherries, glycerin, this stoney touch, roses, and this very lean and mild medicine background. Very sweet nose.

On the palate: tight initially, but when the tannins loosened up, it was a joy. This was high acidity, super juicy and ultra energetic. Touch of residual sugar. Very fine tannins: just enough to give the wine some structure, but just polished. High intensity of red fruits on the palate.

This was DELICIOUS. Definitely needs a bit of air in the glass to become beautiful.