Clear bright ruby with thin clear edges.  A cellar-floor-ish sorta burnt-rubber banana-peel nose definitely not gravitating toward fresh fruit and toying dangerously with oxidation.  Boiled cherries.  Still and calm with no energy.  I have not had this wine since the Joseph Phelps days.  Probably pre-2000 even.  I picked this up in anticipation of tasting Baker & Brain’s Le Mistral and was curious how the old-school label had held up, switching hands and all.  I feel it has also taken a huge step backwards in quality.  In the mouth, things improve considerably.  Rich and elegant, deeply fruited, rife with dark cherry concentrated and fairly intense spice.  A fat swath of acid washes everything and the finish is outright beautiful, with supple fruit and soft tannins. Why can’t it smell as good as it tastes?!?!
♦
2011 LE MISTRAL Monterey County (label is very vague whether grapes actually are derived from The Le Mistral Vineyard) SY/GR/AB/PS  51/39/7/3  14-3