Dense ruby with purple edges.  Absolute INK, black, and staining.  A tarry, raw sausage nose, rife with cassis and blackberry, licorice and tobacco, mint and mud, dirty socks and eucalyptus.  Alcohol definitely makes itself known, as does ample oak, but a stunning, beautiful nose on this thing.  Three hours in now and showing no signs of slowing down or fattening up.  I am always surprised when I taste this producer’s wines.  I go into them EXPECTING to not like them but more often than not come away happy.

Anyone who has been involved in wine with me knows I have ranted and raged against hi-AL for a couple decades.  Am I softening?  Am I changing my mind?  No.  Because the vast majority of young hi-AL wines I drink are flawed and unbalanced and and HUGE majority of older hi-AL wines I drink are CLEARLY showing stress and flabbiness easily attributable to initial balance.  Am I over-simplifying this?  Yes.  Am I blaming everything on hi-AL?  Yes.  Are there other factors at work which contribute to these issues?  Yes.  Am I lumping hi-pH and low-acid in with hi-AL and calling it a gang?  Yes.  It it all hi-AL’s fault?  No.  But you are who you hang with.  And then Red Zeppelin comes along advertising he is going to produce 18-OH wine or BUST and I roll my eyes into the back of my head and assume the worst.  But I keep getting surprised.  This one definitely has a helping of AL, noticeable all through the nose and long into the edges of the very ripe–but quite bright–fruit.  I don’t think it is as high as some of his bottlings, but am going to guess 15-2

In the mouth, it starts mellow and almost thin, but a crescendo of fruit and acid propel everything along smartly.  It grows into a BIG wine–but not obese.  Awkwardness never enters the picture.  Massively fruited, albeit dark, turning funky right at middle-end, where the clawing, young-Cornas-style peach-pit structure you have been noticing finally takes over.  You can totally see the two components working almost separately throughout this bottle.  While on one hand I would hate to taste this thing young (1. There are grapey residuals of what I KNOW the fruit tasted like young 2.  I have tasted other wines from this producer young, and 3.  I typically hate young PS) and am sure I would not have liked it, on the other hand–other than than the fruit taking on a tad more mature, grown up sophistication–EVERYTHING ELSE has not aged a bit.  From the color through the finish, this thing acts set to hang out another decade.  Can the fruit survive?  I think it *possibly* could.  Wow, label is 14-5.  I was way off.  Still, a really enjoyable wine with A LOT going on.  Highly recommended at  ♦♦

24hr revisit:  Well, this is not a 24hr revisit.  This is a 96hr revisit. 5.19.15:  Vac-U-Vin’d but no argon.  Still incredibly viable nose–full of fruit and structure with no oxidation AT ALL.  Ripe and vibrant, clear and dark.  Tight and focused STILL.  Really a fabulous wine.